Hrísheimar 2005, Interim Report (field report)

Summary

The excavations at Hrísheimar have now been in progress for five years (2000-05) and

this report presents the preliminary results of the 2005 season. The site area is at the edge

of the active erosion front in this part of Mývatnssveit, and clearly much of the original

land surface and archaeological deposits have been destroyed completely by wind

erosion. However the site has proven to be surprisingly productive and continued

investigations have opened up some unexpected new perspectives on Settlement Age

economy and settlement.

For the first two years the focus of the work was on surveying and test trenching for

assessment rather than on large scale excavation, although a quantifiable archaeofauna

was recovered from the 2001 season (McGovern & Tinsley 2001). In 2003 and 2004 the

work intensified with the opening of two large excavation areas, one along the ridgeline

above the main farm ruin, the other in an area below the farm ruin that was still covered

with grass and appeared to contain intact deposits.

If we were to properly understand the emerging complex of structures and middens, and

to effectively connect the tephra horizons with the rich midden deposits, we clearly

needed a major expansion of the excavation unit rather than the series of smaller ad hoc

expansions carried out in 2004. Three small test pits dug in 2003 (M, N, P) 8 meters

north of the L unit had all struck cultural material at ca 70 cm below the modern surface,

suggesting that more cultural material was preserved in situ to the north of the 2003-04

midden unit L. We decided to open a much larger excavation unit in 2005 in this area to

the north of the previous excavation units.

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