Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 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
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