Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 25

Archaeological Excavations at Vatosfjörður 2003-04
The 2004 archaeological excavations
The excavation at Vatnsfjörður continued
in June 2004 and focused on the oval-
shaped building recorded in 2003. Two
occupational phases were recorded in the
summer of 2004. The earliest phase was
a Viking Age longhouse. This longhouse
was well-preserved with the exception of
the walls which had been damaged by
field leveling. This damage was more
severe in the southem end of the build-
ing. The latter phase saw major con-
stmction changes to the longhouse. In
particular, the longhouse had been short-
ened by the erection of a new southem
wall bisecting the longhouse. The func-
tion of this latter-phase structure is
unknown.
Early occupation phase
The longhouse at Vatnsíjörður is approx-
imately 15 x 5 meters (measured on the
inside), with bow-shaped walls. The
walls were constructed of turf and foun-
dation stones were not visible. It is like-
ly that the reason why foundation stones
were not recorded during the excavations
may well be because the walls had sus-
tained considerable damage at later peri-
ods and that they have not been not fully
excavated. The walls were completely
flattened and at no point were they high-
er than 10-20 centimeters. The condition
of the walls made it difficult to determine
what type of turf was used in the con-
stmction of the walls but all the available
evidence suggests that they had original-
ly been made of the strengur type. This
type of turf was often used in buildings in
Iceland and is recorded at all periods.
Turf of this type is cut from a bog and is
made of a turf block, ca. 0.50 x 1.0
meters long and 10-20 centimeters thick.
The turf block is placed in such a way
that it locks into the block beside it and
then another layer of turf is added on top
until the wall is constmcted.
In the centre of the longhouse
was a hearth made of stones. The hearth
was oval-shaped and measured 2 x 1
meters, but it had been damaged on both
ends and its original size was probably 4
x 2 meters. The hearth was constmcted of
upright stones which have been dug into
the ground and large flat stones placed
between them. All the stones in the fire-
place showed evidence of extensive
buming and the flat stones were all fire
cracked.
The longhouse had two
entrances both on the eastem wall. The
northem entrance was better preserved as
field flattening had badly damaged the
southem entrance. The northem entrance
was 1.20 meters wide and paved with
large flat stones, which extended east-
wards from the building. Some of the
stones had obviously been removed as
there were gaps in the pavement. On the
inside of the entrance two postholes were
recorded which probably are the remains
of doorposts. These postholes were
aligned with small stones which support-
ed the doorposts. The southem entrance
was badly damaged and all pavement
stones had been removed from it except
for a few small flat stones. The entrance
was similar in size to the northern
entrance.
The floor deposits in the long-
house extended over the entire area
inside the longhouse with the exception
of the westem side of the building where
there was approximately 1 meter
between the floor deposits and the wall.
This may be a result of having benches
along the westem wall but not along the
eastem wall. The floor deposits were
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