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Skáholt 2002 - Nabo

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Rector´s chambers, and after 1781, converted to an infirmary. As excavated, the room<br />

was more or less complete except for truncation along its eastern wall by the haybarn.<br />

The room was aligned north-south, 4.9m long and 3.1m wide, its walls surviving only to<br />

a height of c. 0.2m. On its northern side, it opened directly onto the corridor, possibly<br />

with a wooden panel frame forming the northern wall with a doorway in it, while its<br />

southern side probably also had a wooden gable end, as there was only a single row of<br />

stones and no turf wall here. The basal layer associated with the room was a sub-floor<br />

leveling/disturbed layer [108], probably associated with wooden floorboards above it and<br />

represents the primary occupation for the room. At a later date, the room seems to have<br />

been re-arranged: the northern wall was blocked up with a full stone course [111], also<br />

effectively blocking the corridor [106] (see above). Associated with this was the laying<br />

down of loose flagstone paving inside the room [098], and on the outside of the southern<br />

gable end, large stone slabs marking an external porch and probably the new access into<br />

the room. The abandonment of the room is marked by turf and stone wall/roof collapse<br />

deposits ([078], [052]).<br />

It is tempting to see the changes to the room relating to its shift from rector´s quarters to<br />

infirmary, however both the artefactual and stratigraphic evidence suggest this change is<br />

much later, probably dating to the early-mid 19 th century. There is no indication of use<br />

for the later flagstone floor – it has none of the rich organic deposits seen in the other<br />

rooms, yet its floor was fairly poorly laid; it is likely to have been used as a dry store<br />

room of some sort. Early 20 th century records describe a drystore (skemma) just west of<br />

the haybarn and although this is probably not the same structure, it may have been rebuilt<br />

as the same in the late 19 th century when most of the farm buildings were re-built<br />

after the earthquake of 1896.<br />

Room [80] (Dormitory; AH)<br />

On the eastern side of the haybarn cut [004] and the most severely truncated by it was the<br />

room described in sources as the dormitory although the 1784 plan incorrectly labels this<br />

30

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