Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Page 55

SMALL HOLDER FARMING IN EARLY MEDIEVAL ICELAND: SKUGGI IN HÖRGÁRDALUR
emerged at this point, but if the archaeo-
fauna cannot yet be entirely used as con-
clusive answers to all these points, it
nevertheless provides new data on a site
previously unknown except for very
recent survey information (Hreiðarsdóttir
et al. 2008:230). Similar is true for
Hörgárdalur and much of Eyjafjörður
also (i.e. Harrison et al. 2010) and this
paper hopes to provide an incentive for
further discussion and necessary archaeo-
logical research of this region.
Skuggi in Hörgárdalur, Trench 1
Skuggi lies south of the glacially fed river
Hörgá on the upper slopes of the river
valley (Hörgárdalur) near the base of a
rocky escarpment.
This river traverses Hörgárdalur and
makes its way past the former manorial
and monastic site at Möðruvellir to even-
tually drain into the ocean in Eyjafjörður
just slightly north of Gásir. The visible
ruin are at 170 m asl, or about a 10
minute uphill hike from Skuggabrú, the
bridge leading the modern road across
Hörgá. The slope levels out slightly in the
area of the archeological ruins, but just
south of it continues again uphill to
Staðartunguháls, a peak belonging to the
mountain range dividing Öxnadalur from
Hörgárdalur. Skuggi is ecologically a
mid-to upper highland site without direct
access to either the valley bottom or
ready access to pastures at higher eleva-
tion but with good rough grazing in its
immediate site catchment. Prior to the
excavation, little was known about the
site other than that the ruins were old and
the area containing skuggagata (‘shadow
path’) was part of the land owned by
Staðartunga farm at least by the end of
»ðcljýellir
AKUREYRI ■
Staðartunga
fi'SVuGcJ/
■Klaústúrhús :
10 Kilometers
Figure 1. Map of Hörgárdalur including Skuggi, Klausturhús, Staðartunga, Möðruvellir, and
Gásir (map by R. Streeter, locations added by R. Harrison).
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