Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 67

Note on barley found at Reynistaður
Figure 1. Map showing Skagafjörður with
sites mentioned.
lecting settlement pattem data for the
area between Reynistaður and Víðimýri
in Skagaíjörður (Steinberg and Bolender
2004; Figure 1). Survey at Reynistaður
conducted in 2001-2002 included shal-
low geophysical prospection and system-
atic coring of the homefíeld area fol-
lowed by a series of assessment excava-
tions. The survey has identified a number
of outbuildings in the homefíeld and
demonstrated a continuous occupation of
the primary farm mound dating to the
initial settlement of Iceland. Reynistaður
appears to be the earliest farm in the
immediate vicinity and is one of the earli-
est farms lying just north of the Langholt
region.
Setting and Methods
Reynistaður, originally called Staður in
Reynines, is the farmstead of the only
Earl of Iceland, Gissur Þorvaldsson, who
diedin 1268AD(McGrew 1970;McGrew
and Thomas 1974). Before that, some-
time in the lOth century, it was said to be
the home of Þórður hesthöfði Snorrason
and of his son, Þorfinnur karlsefnis, one
of the early European settlers of Vínland
(Kunz 2000). The farmstead is mentioned
in several family sagas as well as in the
Sturlunga sagas when it was a prominent
estate of the Asbimingar family. The
farm continued to be an important eco-
nomic and political center after the end of
the Commonwealth as the site of a con-
vent and as a parish seat.
Reynistaður is situated where the
Sæmundar River (Sæmundará) enters the
fjord bottom and tums north to flow to the
sea as the Reynistaður River (Staðará). The
bend in the river has cut the south and east
edges of the primary farm mound exposing
up to 2.5 meters of domestic deposits
(Figure 2). The midden begins just above
the green Landnám tephra layer (LNL)
dated from Greenland ice cores to AD
871±2 (Grönvold, et al. 1995) and AD
877±4 (Zielinski, et al. 1997). The farm
mound was stabilized by 2003 with a
bolder dyke placed along the bank of the
river preventing further erosion of the
deposit. In the summer of 2004 two profile
sections were cleaned, drawn and photo-
graphed. The top of the main section of the
southern profile is at E 573372.9, N
474202.8 and 8.5m above MSL (ISNET93).
Both exposed profiles indicate intensive
and continuous cultural activity following
the LNL deposition (Figure 3 & 4). Both
profiles have the same tephra layers and
similar cultural deposits including the
V-1000 AD, the 1104 AD (Fil) and prehis-
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