Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 68

Heather B. Trigg et al.
toric H3/H4 tephras (Sigurgeirsson 2001).
The east profíle is the only one with the
later (upper) grainy black tephra that is
either the Hekla 1300 AD or the Hekla
1766 tephra.
The cultural layers in both profiles are
immediately on top of a mottled organic
layer with small amounts of the dark green
landnám tephra (see also Hallsdóttir 1987).
The LNL was on top of a mixed aeolian
deposit with substantial amounts of the
H3/H4 tephra (Buckland, Dugmore and
Edwards 1997), which overlay river sand
and silt. The bottom cultural layers of both
profiles are dominated by gray and black
ash, while the middle layers are dominated
by mixed turf. The upper layers are domi-
nated by reddish peat ash.
In 2007 the exposed midden deposits
at Reynistaður from the southern profile
were sampled for macrobotanical
Figure 2. Map showing
both Reynistaður pro-
file locations.
Figure 3. Photo of southern profile at
Reynistaður.
66