Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 58

Ragnar Edvardsson
The number of bases of all types
are numerous in Vestfirðir as nearly all
farms had access to the sea. All these
farms had a heimræði; however, sites of
the útver and verstöð types are relatively
few. These two latter types are all situat-
ed in similar locations close to the tip of
a peninsula and often in very inhos-
pitable and rough places. The heimræði
are randomly situated on each individual
farm although usually as close to the
farmhouse as possible where a good
landing could be found. It seems there-
fore that there is a distinction between
heimræði, viðleguver and blandað ver on
one hand and útver on the other. The for-
mer three were used for subsistence and
commercial purposes while the útver was
a more specialized site focused on off-
shore fishing.
Archaeological Assessment of Fishing
Stations
Archaeological surveys and excavations
conducted for this project have provided
a new understanding of fishing stations
in Vestfirðir. Taking the surveys into con-
sideration, it has been revealed that there
are no serious differences between the
forms of fishing stations based on the
aforementioned historical types . The his-
torical categories are based on location
from a farm more than likely given cen-
turies ago and attempting to properly
associate a particular station with a parti-
cular farm today is not based on anything
defmitive, since there are no stylistic dif-
ferences between the types. As all are
situated near water, the obvious connec-
tion with fishing, it is difficult to apply
these typological terms (Edvardsson
1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003).
Figure 1. Fully andpartially surveyedfishing sites in Vestfirðir
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