Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 118

Uggi Ævarsson
donment of the farm. It seemed obvious
to Gestsson that the houses were all
standing when the white pumice came
down - at least nothing was found that
contradicted this 14th century dating. So
the tephrochronological dating was, and
still is, taken as fact.
The houses Gísli Gestsson uncovered
comprised a complex of seven rooms and
two out-houses: a combined byre and
bam, and a kiln house. The houses with-
in the complex are as follows, from east
to west:
A kitchen (VI, eldhús) with a wooden
front gable, not connected by a door to
the adjacent room, which is a hall (II,
skáli), a longhouse parallel to the pave-
ment. Then comes the outer door with
the passage (I, göng) and west of it is a
living room (III, stofa), a longhouse like
the hall and orientated in the same way.
Farthest to the west is a pantry (VII, búr)
corresponding to the kitchen and built in
the same fashion with a timber gable and
no door leading to the adjacent room.
Behind this row of four houses is a lava-
tory (IV, salerni) and a bathroom (V,
baðstofa). From the outer door a passage
leads across the west end of the hall
directly to the lavatory and from this
main passage a side passage to the left
leads to the living room [opposite the
hall] and another one to the right [from
the lavatory] to the bathroom. Under the
Fig. 3. The Kiln house (from Gestsson 1959, p.32).
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