Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2010, Blaðsíða 100

VÉRONIQUE FORBES, ALLISON BAIN, GUÐRÚN ALDA GÍSLADÓTTIR AND KAREN B. MILEK
Figure 10. Cellar 7503, after the removal of fill 7504. The pavement (7515), the central floor
(7525) and on the top left of the picture (corresponding to the NW corner of the room) the wooden
structure (7533) are visible (Picture from Ævarsson & Gísladóttir 2008, 74).
that peat was present during the forma-
tion of the floor layer 7512.
Context C: Cellar 7503
The cellar (7503) (Fig. 10) was used as
part of the 1884-1906 turf dwelling house
and it may have been in use after this date
even though only one floor layer was
found in the room. The matrix of this
floor deposit, from which samples S-505
and S-510 were taken, was primarily
composed of organic matter, including
both vegetal (carbonized and unbumed
seeds, leaf parts, hay remains, wood
chips and twigs) and animal (bones, fish
scales, hair, feathers, eggshell fragments)
matter, as well as a few mortar and char-
coal fragments and slag. Samples S-511,
512 and 513 were taken from patches that
were the result of peat and wood ash
deposits. This context produced a very
substantial and diverse archaeoentomo-
logical assemblage (Fig. 11 and Table 2).
The cellar is the only context for which
the pests of stored products form as much
as 20% of the assemblage (Fig. 12). This
includes a large number of the spider bee-
tles Tipnus unicolor and Ptinus tectus.
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