Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 2017, Page 71

ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS70
Summary
On pithouses, dyngjur and bath-houses
In Iceland some 25 pithouses from the Viking age and Early medieval period have
been excavated (see table 1). These are small buildings, on average around 13m² in
size, ranging between 4-32 m². Their depth ranges between 0,3-1,2 m. There are
two main theories as to the function of these pithouses.
First, it has been suggested that they were bath-houses, saunas where steam
was produced by pouring water on stones heated by fire. This has been supported
by the fact that the pithouses have comparatively large hearths. In fact, in the six
houses where the size of the hearths and the f loor area of the houses are known,
the hearths cover on average 2,4% of the f loors space. By comparison, in twelve
skálar used in this study, the living and sleeping rooms of farmhouses, where the
areas of hearths and houses are known (see table 2), the hearths cover around 2%
of the f loors. The great difference is that the skálar were much wider and higher
than the pithouses.
Second, the pithouses have been interpreted as spaces where women worked
wool. This is mainly supported by the warp weights and other tools for spinning
and weaving which are frequently found in these structures. It has also been
suggested that the pithouses were the rooms which are sometimes mentioned in
sagas called dyngjur (sing. dyngja), which were occupied by women. However, none
of the instances in sagas where events take place in dyngjur is there any indication
that they were located in pithouses. It seems more likely that saga authors would
stage events in dyngjur if women played an important part in them. No dyngjur are
ever mentioned in the contemporary sagas (11th-13th century). It would therefore
seem unlikely that any dyngjur were in Iceland at that time.
The conclusion of this article is that the pithouses were predominantly bath-
houses used by women for wool processing, to make use of the warmth. They
were probably called baðstofur (sing. baðstofa), which may help to explain why in the
modern era living and sleeping rooms of Icelandic farms were also called baðstofur,
although there is no indication that bathing took place there. The pithouses seem
to have through time developed into general living and sleeping rooms.