Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 100

GUÐRÚN ALDA GÍSLADÓTTIR, JAMES M. WOOLLETT, UGGI ÆVARSSON, CÉLINE DUPONT-HÉBERT,
ANTHONY NEWTON AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
Borg is a coastal site consisting of
several small isolated ruins that are
square in shape. They are located
on a low raised beach terrace in the
bottom of the cove east of
Hjálmarvik, just inland from the
modem shoreline. Two of the more
well-defíned stmctures, (the
westem stmcture measuring 6m by
3.5m, the eastem measuring lOm
by 7m) were tested with a soil
corer. The tests showed that the
house floors are overlaid by thin
layers of apparently sterile turfy
topsoil and dark grey tephra layer
(presumed to be V1477). Above
the tephra is rock and gravel. These
stmctures are therefore tentatively
dated to the post-medieval period.
No trace of occupational debris
inside or outside the stmctures was
detected. In their size and plan,
these stmctures do not resemble
sheep-houses identified elsewhere.
It is possible that they are, given
their proximity to the shore,
associated with fishing activity, i.e.
fishing booths of some sort.
West Borg
The West Borg site consists of a
pair of turf mins located by the edge
of the rocky beach of the grassy
meadow, just beside the edge of the
beach of the Hjálmarvik cove, about
250 m east of a modem cement
sheephouse and about 370 m west
of Borg. The larger stmcture of the
two is a long single-room turf
building measuring about 22m by
lOm with notably bowed walls and
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