Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Side 27

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Side 27
ON FARM MOUNDS century is expected, the farm-mound at Laufás is curiously low. There are other environmental differ- ences between Laufás and Stóraborg which can partly explain this. Indigenous birch wood still survives on the property of Laufás and it is one of the fanns in Iceland which had a good supply of firewood down through the centuries. It is likely that this resulted in signifícantly slower accumula- tion of floor layers than in Stóraborg where peat was the principal fuel. Laufás is also located on the edge of a steep slope which allows matter to be washed off site more easily and which has also allowed the inhabitants to dump their waste clear away ffom the farm site. However it seems that it was primarily the greater area of wooden and/or paved floors in Laufás which caused this difference. Stone paving on floors is a common feature in Icelandic farmhouses. A paving creates a fíxed surface which can be cleaned and thus maintained, or at the very least regained when the floor was 8. Plan of the modern turf-farm at Laufás, N-Iceland, showing the location of a 22 m long trench providing a section through the farm-mound. dug out. It is apparent that paving stones were constantly in danger of being buried in rapidly accumulating floor layers. Pavements rarely cover the whole floor- space of any room, the other parts being of earth which had a tendency to sub- merge the paving. Paved floors occur most frequently in those areas which saw the most traffic; entrance rooms, the cen- tre of a room and passageways and corri- dors. At Laufás parts of the central passage had been paved with large slabs but this paving had been dismantled at some point in the first half of the 20th cen- tury when a trench was dug along the length of the passage. Since this event the floor had built up by 5-15 cm, having it seems been kept at the paving level since before the 17th century (Orri Vésteinsson 2000, 11). Examples of less successful paving come from Stóraborg where sub- merged pavements are a common feature and they can be considered as one of many factors contributing to the build-up of floors. In one passage room (house no. 47) there were 5 courses of paving, each laid on top of the other, no doubt in an effort to keep a damp spot on the floor dry and tidy. Paved floors may therefore prevent the build-up of floor levels but in other cases they can contribute to the accumulation. Unlike paved floors a wooden floor requires more or less constant cleaning if it is to serve its function. The regular sweeping and washing of wooden floors clearly prevents the accumulation of earthen floor layers. Wooden floors may on the other hand contribute to the accu- mulation of material outside the farm house - the dumped material that has been 25
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