Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Síða 108

Birna Lárusdóttir, Gavin Lucas, Lilja Björk Pálsdóttir and Stefán Ólafsson
could not trade their products, such as
wool and meat. Sometimes merchants
would come but leave immediately after
they had collected the liver oil. There
was plenty of the more common goods in
other ports around the country (Aðils
1971,287-288).
The oldest written source
known that describes housing in Kúvíkur
is the account of the parish priest in
Ámes in 1852. At the time it held 4 tim-
ber houses, a couple of turf houses (a
byre and a bam) and one stonebuilt house
- which must be considered one of the
oldest stonehouses in Iceland (Ágústsson
1998, 271-319). Its location is not
known today. At that time the farm was
kept separate and west from the trading
houses but now no signs of it can be seen,
not surprisingly as it was built of drift-
wood. The same source describes it as
one of the most stately farms in the whole
parish (SSV, 235-236). Most likely a
couple of timber houses that were still
standing in the mid 20th century were
among these four houses. One of them,
the old trading house in Kúvíkur (see
min (a) on fig. 4) was tom down soon
afterl950, still in relatively good condi-
tion. It was believed to have been built
around 1770 (Jóhannesson 2001, 18).
Little is known about the other houses
although the byre may well be the same
as the one known from the early 20th
century (see min (b) on fíg. 4). Only one
whole house from Kúvíkur is preserved
today, the dwelling of the merchant Carl
Jensen, built around 1900. It was moved
south to Kaldbaksvík and still stands
there by the main road.
Although the emphasis here has
been on the history of trading it must be
stressed that agriculture was a great part
of the economy in Kúvíkur. The farming
Figure 3. Photograph from the late 19th century, showing the old trading hoase (right) and the
dwelling of Jakob Thorarensen (left); the midden is located to the right of the frame.
106