Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 12

BIRNA LÁRUSDÓTTIR
Kristján Eldjárn, Gísli Gestsson and
Þorkell Grímsson to mention a few. Only
the National Museum conducted
archaeological work so there was a lot
less activity than now. My first job was on
the excavation in Herjólfsdalur in the
Vestmann Islands with Margrét
Hermanns-Auðardóttir, followed by the
excavation in Reykjavík, directed by Else
Nordahl. Many people were involved in
archaeology during this time; on the
Reykjavík digfor example were members
of the Rio Trio [a semi famous Icelandic
band] - Ágúst Atlason and Helgi
Pétursson, as well as Olafur Þ.
Harðarson, later a political scientist.
BL: Did you get to know Kristján Eldjám
[President of Iceland at the time]?
MS: He invited me and Margrét
Hermanns-Auðardóttir to his home in
Bessastaðir once when we were
excavating in Herjólfsdalur. It is fiun to be
able to say thatyou have been on all fours
at the President ’sfloor because that 's how
it ended when he unfolded his excavation
plans from Papey and showed us!
BL: The largest excavation project that
you have directed is without doubt the
farm mound of Stóraborg, in southern
Iceland. The site was under investigation
for thirteen summers and still counts as
the largest farm mound excavation ever
conducted in Iceland. What was the story
behind that project?
MS: The honour goes to Þórður
Tómasson [creator and curator of the
famous Skógar Museum] who initiated
the excavation. He had known about this
farm mound which was being gradually
destroyed by sea erosion. He often went
there and collected finds exposed by the
sea. I first heard about this by
coincidence. I was visiting a museum
with some students in Sweden and one of
the directors had just received a text from
Þórður about Stóraborg. He asked me to
translate it to Swedish. It wasn 't until
several years later, in 1978, that I was
asked to excavate there on behalf of the
National Museum. I was working in the
city museum, Arbœjarsafn, at the time but
was allowed to go and excavate during
the summer months. The excavation was
sponsored by Þjóðhátíðarsjóður and in
the end the project had stretched over
thirteen summers. Normally we were a
group of five people who excavated for
two months each summer.
Mjöll Snæsdóttir; photograph taken in 2005
BL: Many current archaeologists took
their fírst steps excavating with you in
Stóraborg, including Adolf Friðriksson,
Kristín Huld Sigurðardóttir, Orri
Vésteinsson and Vilhjálmur Örn
Vilhjálmsson. Would it be fair to state
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