Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Síða 29

ON FARM MOUNDS
9. Simplified section from Stóraborg illustrating the proportions of turf to floor layers. The
large pit at the base is a sunken featured building which was backfilled withfairly homogenous
earth but otherwise the accumulation is primarily turf and floor layers. Drawing by Stefán
Olafsson based on originals in the Stóraborg excavation archive.
a volume of 10 m3), under the new house
(Fig. 10). This I suggest is the basic
mechanism whereby farm-mounds accu-
mulate: it is a function of turf architecture
with earthen floors when houses are
rebuilt on the same spot. Greater volumes
than this are however needed to account
for the actual build-up of farm-mounds,
but before I tum to that problem it is nec-
essary to consider why floors would be
allowed to grow in the fírst place.
However well maintained earthen
floors are they will always increase in
thickness over time. This can be a slow or
fast process but if it is not checked some-
how it will sooner or later cause prob-
27