Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 17

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 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
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Archaeologia Islandica

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