Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 20

ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
4. The farm-mound atÁmá, Héðinsfjörður, N-Iceland in 2000. Another similarly large mound, at
Möðruvellir, can be seen across the river. Both sites were abandoned in the early 20th century.
able building activity and levelling has
taken place in the past 60 years. In some
cases the mounds can still be seen and in
others reports have survived on the depth
of deposits observed when new buildings
were erected on the mounds. For these
reasons volume estimated from ground
survey only are difficult to make but the
available data suggests that most
Icelandic farm-mounds are between 20-
50 m long and 10-35 m wide, with vol-
ume fígures between 2000 and 5000 m3.
It is also clear however that in a number
of cases farm-mounds have not formed or
are significantly thinner than might be
expected, seen for instance where farm
houses have been moved ffom the origi-
nal site and this site has not been levelled
but is still quite flat. There is no clear pat-
tem in the distribution of farm-mounds
vs. old farm sites with no or small
mounds. Both types of site occur in
coastal and inland regions and in all parts
of the country. Extremely large farm-
mounds are however more frequent in the
South, i.e. mounds that appear to be 4-5
m high (including possibly a natural rise)
and in excess of 50 m wide.
How do farm-mounds form?
All deep stratigraphies are a result of the
volume of material brought on site being
greater than the forces contributing to the
breakdown or removal of the same mate-
rial. The bulk of material deposited on a
settlement site is a) building material and
b) refuse, which divides into i) food
waste, ii) excrement, iii) fuel residues and
iv) industrial waste. Each of these differ-
ent types of material has different proper-
ties which respond differently to different
types of degradation. Degradation in tum
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