Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 88

GUÐRÚN ALDA GÍSLADÓTTIR, JAMES M. WOOLLETT, UGGI ÆVARSSON, CÉLINE DUPONT-HÉBERT,
ANTHONY NEWTON AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
0 m
N
L
,25 m
Figiire 8. GPS sketchmap of Þorvaldsstaðasel
and location of trenches. Trench A (4x1,4 m),
trench B (8,15x1,4 m) and trench C (1,5x0,5 m).
were first considered to be eroded
hummocks but which are, in fact,
probably the remains of the structure in
phase III. Later yet another structure was
erected on the mound, interpreted as a
hay-stack by farmer Sigtryggur
Þorláksson. More recently and for an
unknown purpose, a hole was dug into
the top of the mound leaving remains of
a wooden post in the hole.
After this extensive exploratory
work, it can be said with certainty that
Þorvaldsstaðasel has a history of at least
700 years of episodic occupation and
activity. The small turf house detected in
the trench was erected after 1477 and was
probably in use well into the 17th century
and possibly longer. The small
assemblage of artefacts recovered from
this excavation (10 in all) includes a
thimble and the aforementioned clay pipe
bowl, rivets and fragmented nails. Taken
together, this modest and undiversified
assemblage and the equally modest
architectural remains do not suggest that
this was a permanently or intensively
occupied farm site. No traces of a midden
were found in soil core testing at the site,
or around it, which also suggests that the
production of peat and wood ash and
other kinds of household waste was not
of a scale sufficient to produce
substantial refuse deposits. The site is
interpreted as a shieling because of its
small size and lack of clear ruins
reflecting the plan of a house or of a
beitarhús, and because no buildings
around the small mound can be detected.
Also, the lack of the detritus of
occupation near the mound, materials
always found within the immediate
vicinity of active farms, support the
proposition that Þorvaldsstaðasel never
converted to a croft or a full scale farm.
The possibility that the site started out as
a very short-lived farm cannot however
be ruled out.
Bægistaðir
Far inland on Svalbarðstunga, almost 20
km from the coast towards the SSW, is
the farm of Bægistaðir. It is located by
the eastem limits of the Svalbarðstunga
territory, near the Sandá river. High
mountains surround the farm on all sides
except to the north. The area is well
vegetated and good for sheep herding,
but snowfalls there can be heavy in the
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