VSF 2010 Report - Nabo

Summary of the Vatnsfjörður Research Project, 2003-2010
Excavations in the Viking Age Area 2003-2010
Research at Vatnsfjörður began in 2003, when Ragnar Edvardsson identified low
earthworks in the homefield – one of which appeared to be in the shape of a bow-sided
Viking Age house, or skáli. That same year, a surface contour survey was conducted by
Garðar Guðmundsson, three evaluation trenches were excavated by Ragnar Edvardsson,
and a survey of relevant historical sources was conducted by Andrea Harðardóttir (Adolf
Friðriksson and Torfi Tulinius 2003; see the list of project references, below). The
evaluation trench excavated on the farm mound found only disturbed deposits, but the two
evaluation trenches in the area that has now come to be known as the Viking Age area
revealed walls and preserved floor deposits of two buildings (later called Structures 1 and
3) (Ragnar Edvardsson 2003). In 2004, the putative skáli, the larger of the two buildings
evaluated in 2003, was excavated by Ragnar Edvardsson (Structure 1, Area 1) (Ragnar
Edvardsson 2004; Ragnar Edvardsson and Thomas McGovern 2005). The ruin was
confirmed to be the typical size and layout of a Viking Age house, and was subsequently
dated to the tenth or early eleventh century on the basis of a radiocarbon date from a cattle
bone found on the floor of the building (Milek 2007).
In 2005, when the excavation of the house was completed, its tenth-century date was
confirmed by the discovery of a number of tenth-century artefacts in the fill of a pit cut into
the east wall of the building, including five glass beads and a gold foil pendant that had
originally been mounted on an Irish brooch (Adolf Friðriksson et al. 2005). The tenthcentury
house was very similar in size, shape, and internal organization to other
contemporary dwellings in Iceland, and included two entrances in the eastern long wall, a
central hearth, three-aisles separated by the roof-supporting posts, and a stone box in the
main entrance passageway (Ragnar Edvardsson and McGovern 2005) (see Figure 3,
above).
In 2005, when the Field School in North Atlantic Archaeology was moved to
Vatnsfjörður, the scale of the excavation doubled, and it has continued to expand every
year since (Figure 3). In addition to the completion of the Viking Age house in Area 1, a
new excavation area (Area 2) was opened up to the east and southeast of the house. In this
area, a smithy was found, as well as an outdoor cooking pit, a couple of temporary outdoor
hearths, extensive sheet midden deposits, and a gully on the eastern edge of the skáli,
which was filled with domestic rubbish (Milek 2005). There was no stratigraphic
connection between the smithy (Structure 3) and the well-dated Viking Age house
(Structure 1), and although its proximity to a Viking Age dwelling suggests
contemporaneity, the lack of diagnostic artefacts in the smithy means that it will not be
possible to be sure about its date until the
radiocarbon dating dating programme is completed.
In 2006 the area around Structure 3 was reopened in order to continue the excavation
of the smithy, and a new excavation area was opened up west and southwest of the smithy
(Area 6), where a new building that had been identified in a test pit in 2005. This open area
excavation brought to light three new outbuildings. The eastern long wall of the smithy was
abutted by a very small oblong building (Structure 6) that had no diagnostic features or
finds in it and was probably used for storage – perhaps the storage of fuel for the smithy
(Figure 3, above). To the south and west of the smithy there was a small rectangular
outbuilding with an entrance in one of its gable walls, a central flag stone, and a very thin,
dark brown floor lens containing small fragments of charred seaweed (Structure 5). The
only significant find in the building was a small grinding wheel, and this, together with the
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