Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 84

GUÐRÚN ALDA GÍSLADÓTTIR, JAMES M. WOOLLETT, UGGI ÆVARSSON, CÉLINE DUPONT-HÉBERT,
ANTHONY NEWTON AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
substantial) H3, H1300 and VI477 tephra
layers provided highly useful
stratigraphic cues for giving relative dates
for stratigraphy observed in the core tests,
although tephra deposits were often
absent due to either human or natural
erosion processes.
Various scales of excavations were
carried out at six sites. The most extensive
excavations included re-examinations of
the Svalbarð midden (in 2008 and 2009),
extensive trenching at Þorvaldstaðasel
(2010), and a test pit and quite extensive
open area excavation in Hjálmarvík (in
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Sondages were
dug at Kúðá and in a ruin in Sjóhúsvík,
while at Bægistaðir, three exposed
sections were cleaned back and
documented where an adjacent stream had
eroded the edge of the farm mound. Also,
near Bægistaðir, an intriuging stone
stmcture resembling a Viking age grave
was excavated. While almost all known
sites have been investigated, Skriða, a
hjáleiga or shieling located in 2011 still
needs to be cored and then possibly
excavated. A few sites need to be revisited
to confírm dating by trial trenching,
including Flaga, Brekknakot, Svalbarðssel
and possibly Fjallalækjarsel. Other sites,
where our investigations have not
succeeded to fmd traces of occupation
before the modem period will probably be
left out in further research for the near
future. At sites where dating has been
confirmed by trial trenching, more work
remains to be done, namely to study the
nature of the archaeological remains
through laterally extensive excavations.
Below is a summary of fíeld
observations made of Svalbarð's outlying
sites that have received more intensive
examination during the project, along with
historical details regarding occupation
derived from written or oral sources.
Svalbarðssel
Svalbarðssel was a hjáleiga on the
property of Svalbarð. The site is located
roughly 4 km south of Svalbarð, 300 m
east of Svalbarðsá. The place-name
suggests that the site was one of
Svalbarð’s shielings (sel) at least at some
point in the past. Svalbarðssel is
mentioned as an abandoned hjáleiga in the
1712 Jarðabók survey (JÁM, 361;
Þormóðsson 1970, 62-63) indicating that
it had been occupied as a farm at least
once before that date. Occasional
occupation in the 18th and early 19th
century is possible but from 1832-1974
the farm was in full and constant
occupation (Elentínusson 2003, 425) and
it is now privately owned summer house.
The Svalbarðssel site consists of a low
grassy mound with traces of recently
destroyed mins of turf farmhouses. More
or less intact are recent mins of a
sheephouse incorporating cement and
metal constmction materials. Visible are
also mins of a modem bam, also recently
bulldozed. Soil core tests of the sheep
house min and mound showed that
cultural deposits in this area comprised a
thin deposit of turfy soil and charcoal
lenses overlying natural gravel parent
material. These constructions are
relatively recent. Fieldwalking and spot
coring in the flat field around the mound
also proved no positive traces of
occupation, suggesting that components
of the historic site may have been
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