VSF 2010 Report - Nabo

This was thought to be an indication to the location of the farms midden which could
possibly contain useful comparative material for the research at Vatnsfjörður. Following
some aguring work done on the site (see Dupont-Hébert C., this report) the decision was
there fore made in 2010 to dig a test trench up against the erosion phase. Work was carried
out by the archaeologist Hildur Gestsdóttir and took place on the 11 th of August. Postexcavation
work was carried out by Oddgeir Isaksen.
Description
The erosion face is located on the western slope of the farm mound at Hálshús. It is about
14 m long and 0.9 m high. The trench was 1 x 1 m in size and 1.2 m deep and was located
up against the erosion face, about 5 m from its northern end. Two sections were recorded
in the trench, the 2.12 m high west facing section and the 1.2 m high north facing section
(Figure 3; Table 1). In addition the west facing section within the erosion surface above
the test trench was cleaned.
The overburden in the test trench was a 15 cm
thick deposit of sheep dung, an indication that sheep
have been seeking shelter there and probably aiding the
erosion. This sealed a dark gray and firm deposit of
flaky soil with bits of charcoal (unit [001]). Under
deposit [001], was a lensed deposit [unit 024] of wood
ash with charcoal as well as flecks of the H~1693
tephra indicating that the deposit post-dates it (these
units are only visible in the north facing section).
The overburden seen in the west facing section
consisted of a deposit of flaky soil which contained a
lot of pieces of birch wood (unit [013]) on top of
homogenous soil (unit [014]). This in turn sealed a
sequence of grey wood ash lenses (unit [015]), about
25 cm thick. Directly under [015] was a 5 cm thick silt
deposit mixed with flecks of turf (unit [016]) and under
that a thin deposit of black wood ash (unit [017]) about
1 cm thick. Under deposit [017] came a sequence of
Figure 2. The test trench.
Direction of camera, south-east
three light brown to medium brown deposits (in
chronological order, youngest to oldest: [018], [019]
and [020]), with combined thickness of about 21 cm,
which all contained birch chippings. All of them were
composed of flaky soil but the earliest of them, unit [020], was also slightly mixed with
fragments of turf. Deposit [020] was sitting directly on top of the H~1693 tephra in situ.
The H~1693 tephra sealed a mixed deposit, about 9 cm thick, of turf debris and silt
(unit [021]), which also contained some wood chippings. This was in turn sitting on top of
a very compacted, about 10 cm thick, deposit of homogenous soil (unit [022]). Deposit
[022] sealed a 8 cm thick deposit (unit [023]) of silt, slightly mixed with charcoal which
was also the lowest unit exposed by the erosion face as (see figure 3).
The north facing section showed clearly how the deposits were sitting on a rather
steep slope (the west side of the farm mound) which dropped from east to west (see Figure
3). Deposits [003] was thickest (11 cm) in the north facing section but became thinner, up
slope to the east. It was mostly about 2 cm thick in the west facing section where it was
clearly sealing a 20 cm thick lensed deposit (unit [025]) of firm, medium brown and orange
turf, a possible turf wall. Also sealed by [003] but only visible in the north facing section
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