Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Side 17

ON FARM MOUNDS
1. Photograph taken during the excavation of Bergþórshvoll in 1928-29. © National Museum of
Iceland.
and sometimes quite distinct mounds
(Sigurður Vigfússon 1892, 43-44; Bruun
1928, 130; Nilsson 1943, 293-94).
In 1927-29 Matthías Þórðarson, then
National Antiquarian of Iceland, excavat-
ed the larger part of a farm-mound at
Bergþórshvoll in South Iceland. He inves-
tigated 50 floors belonging to at least 9
phases going down to a depth of 3,3
metres (Fig 1.). He was not able to distin-
guish the turf walls ffom mrf collapse or
other debris but it is clear that turf was the
principal element responsible for the great
thickness of the deposits. Þórðarson never
published a report on his fmdings and the
excavation has as a consequence not
received the attention it merits. The results
are however summarised in a report by
Kristján Eldjám and Gísli Gestsson from
1952. It is also clear that archaeologists
working in Greenland and Iceland in the
1930s onwards realised that farm build-
ings in these countries are as a rale built on
top of earlier remains, although attempts
were rarely made to excavate more than
the most recent building levels (Roussell
1941, 138, 149-50, 161). This is particu-
larly trae of excavations of Greenlandic
farmsteads before the 1990s (e.g. Vebæk
1993), but also of Icelandic sites like
Stöng (Roussel 1943c), Skallakot
(Roussell 1943b), Sámsstaðir (Sveinbjöm
Rafnsson 1977), Áslákstunga fremri
(Stenberger 1943b), Sandártunga and
Forna-Lá (Kristján Eldjám 1951), Gröf
(Gísli Gestsson 1959), Reyðarfell (Þorkell
Grímsson 1976), Herjólfsdalur (Margrét
Hermanns-Auðardóttir 1989) and Kúabót
15