Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 19

ON FARM MOUNDS
some with thick floor-levels indicating
long periods of uninterrupted use, which
can be grouped into some 10 main phases
(Mjöll Snæsdóttir 1989,1991 a, b. See also
Fig. 3). In Greenland the 1990s saw the
excavation of GUS, a farmstead in the
Westem Settlement with deep stratigra-
phies with remains ffom the 1 lth century to
the 14th. Here the maximum thickness was
about 1,5 m (Albrethsen & Guðmundur
Ólafsson 2001).
At several sites test trenches have
revealed depth of deposits in farm-
mounds, like at Nes við Seltjöm, some
2,5 m (Vilhjálmur Ö. Vilhjálmsson 1990)
and in Bjameyjar, in excess of 2 m (Mjöll
Snæsdóttir pers. comm.). The farm-
mound of Reykholt in SW-Iceland has
been the subject of intensive archaeolog-
ical research although here the accumula-
tion was not all in the same place, with
early modern levels to one side of a
medieval phase which was the main
focus of the research (Buckland et al.
1992, Guðrún Sveinbjamardóttir 2010).
Farm-mounds at Utskálar and
Leirvogstunga, both in SW-Iceland have
recently been subject to investigations in
a rescue context, revealing depths in
excess of 2 m at both sites (Oddgeir
Hansson 2007; Guðrún Alda Gísladóttir
pers. comm.).
Since 1994 systematic registration of
archaeological sites has been underway
in Iceland. In July 2010 7631 farm sites
had been registered and of these 5373 are
considered candidates for farm-mound
accumulation (i.e. sites where farm hous-
es have been situated on the same spot for
several centuries. Fig. 4). Of these 1161
have been surveyed in the field and vol-
ume estimates are available for more than
400. The majority of these sites are still
functioning farms where often consider-

3. The farm mound of Stóraborg under excavation in 1988. Spoil heaps in the foreground.
Photo: Mjöll Snæsdóttir.
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