Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 110

Birna Lárusdóttir, Gavin Lucas, Lilja Björk Pálsdóttir and Stefán Ólafsson
Key to ruins in Figure 4:
(a) trading house of Jakob Thorarensen
(b) byre with a dwelling on 2nd floor and a
chicken hut to the east
(c) dwelling of Jakob Thorarensen
(d) midden
(e) sheep house
(f) boundary wall
(g) boat sheds
(h) smithy
(i) sheep house
(j) iron pot for liver processing
(k) boundaty wall called “Brœðslugarður”
(Melting wall)
(l) “Gíslhús ” (The house of Gísli)
(m) sheep house
(n) homefield boundary
is, however, hardly comparable to other
farms in the area as the settlement has
been designed around trading as well as
the subsistence of the inhabitants. For
example, no ewes or lambs were kept
there in the wintertime, at least around
1900 - only sheep, most likely wethers,
that were raised mainly for suet
(Guðbrandsson 1970, 53). Many of the
surface remains in the Kúvíkur home-
field bear witness to agriculture. The
homefield is enclosed with a turf- and
stone-built wall on two sides, to the
south and the west and partly to the
north. Otherwise, it is naturally fenced
off by cliffs. Many of the visible ruins in
the homefield are those of animal hous-
es, e.g. sheephouses and a stable, but
also a smithy and some boat sheds. Most
of them look fairly recent and have prob-
ably been in use until the mid-20th cen-
tury. Impressive signs of cultivation can
be seen in a few places in the homefield,
both lazybeds to improve haymaking and
potato fields. These are a testament to
the hard work people put themselves
through, most likely in the late 19th and
(o) outhouse -probably a sheep house
(p) outhouse — probably a stable
(q) fenced track
(r) unknown ruin -possibly a vegetable
patch
(s) unknown ruin
(t) concrete foundation of Carl Jensen 's
dwelling
(u) chicken hut
(v) boundaty wall
(x) sheep house
(y) unknown ruin
(z) remants of slaughterhouse foundations
(þ) inscribed rock: “Gold is under me ”
early 20th centuries. Yet it must be kept
in mind that such great improvements
may well have damaged older structures
in the homefield.
The great activity and ambition
of the merchant Jakob Thorarensen
(1830-1911) is believed to be the main
reason for the long survival of the settle-
ment in Kúvíkur. In 1863 Skeljavík, just
south of Hólmavík, was given trading
rights and in 1890 Hólmavík as well.
Norðurljörður was legalized as a trading
place in 1899 and was thought to have a
very practical location for large ships that
were passing by. Finally, trading started
in Gjögur in 1912 (Líndal 1982, 379).
All this and the aforementioned rise of
Djúpavík as a herring station caused the
decline and finally abandonment of
Kúvíkur.
During the field survey in 2003
all visible remains in the homefield were
registered and mapped. The map (fig. 4)
is based on that work and an aerial pho-
tograph (Loftmyndir ehf).
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