Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 23

BUILDING AND KEEPING HOUSE IN 19TH-CENTURY ICELAND.
DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENTS AT HORNBREKKA, SKAGAFJÖRÐUR
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase4 Earlier Later ph.
ph. Midden
Midden
"slip
■sponge
■decal
enamelled
■industrial slip
lustre
■transferprinted
■ painted
■ moulded
■ none present
■ undecorated
Fig 7 Percentage of decoration methods on ceramic vessels by phase at Hornbrekka (ENV).
vessel they formed had been repaired and
reused before they ended up inside walls,
trampled into floors or in the midden. In
total 4% of the estimated vessels retrieved
from within the building had been
repaired while 14% of those deposited in
the midden had repair holes, a fact which
may further support the theory of
individually owned vessels which would
give their owners a heightened incentive
to repair their own bowl or plate if it
broke.
The scarcity of ceramics in the earliest
deposits in the midden supports their
relative late addition to the household at
Hombrekka; this phase includes deposits,
estimated to date to early - mid 18th
century. The vast majority of sherds from
this phase were made of coarse
earthenware (72%) which will have
originated from storage and cooking
vessels rather than tablewares. The
number of sherds rises dramatically in the
later phase of the midden where the
majority of sherds are from industrially
produced refined earthenwares (97%).
This pattem is tme of the earliest phase
within the building (dated to c.
1850-1870) where all the ceramic sherds
were made of refined earthenware and
carries on thxough subsequent phases. The
relative proportion of different types of
refined earthenware changes slightly
throughout the phases of the building with
whiteware becoming more common while
the amount of creamware and pearlware
sherds are more stable throughout (Fig 8).
While the use of ceramics appears to have
been commonplace by the tum of the
century in Iceland people did not
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