Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 89

FARMSTEAD RELOCATION AT THE END OF THE VIICING AGE.
RESULTS OF THE SKAGAFJÖRÐUR ARCHAEOLOGICAL SETTLEMENT SURVEY
buildings are unambiguously undemeath
the other domestic stmctures and it is
possible that none of the buildings was
occupied at the same time. The successive
replacement, as opposed to repair, of
domestic stmctures evident at the site
suggests that the household at Stóra-Seyla
did not participate in the tradition of house
maintenance and rebuilding that
characterizes the development of later
farm-mounds (Vésteinsson 2010).
Whether or not this is characteristic of the
early phases at neighboring farm-mound
sites is unknown but it does suggest that
the lack of stmctural complexity seen at
many relocated and abandoned farmsteads
may be the result of their relatively short
occupational histories.
Test pits in the Lower Seyla midden
show cultural accumulations that begin
immediately on top of the Landnám layer
and which are consistent with radiocarbon
dates that indicate an early establishment
date. Midden fonnation at Lower Seyla
ends after the fall of the Veiðivötn tephra
in approximately AD 1000 (Vj~ 1000) with
approximately 4 centimeters of sterile soil
accumulation before the Hekla 1104
tephra was deposited (Sigurgeirsson
2009). All domestic stmctures associated
with the site are also under the Hekla 1104
tephra. The youngest radiocarbon dates
Figure 2. Topographic map of Stóra-Seyla (104), with ISNET coordinates showing Viking Age
(Lower Seyla) and medieval (Upper Seyla) farmsteads.