Toftarannsóknir í Fuglafírði

Abstract

In the summer of 1958, in a place called o-heima á Oyrin/, Fuglafjørður (Eysturoy), on the shore in the bottom of the fiord (fig. 1), was excavated the remains of an ancient settling beJow various strata of later buildings (figs. 5 and 6).

Of the sites in the lowest stratum (houses VIII and VII), which are in reality the same house representing a long period of building, 10 m of the long side (inside measurement) are left. The house, oriented N—S, is built of curved filling walls, 1.25—1.5 m thick, with straight cut ends, a fireplace in the middle of the floor in the longitudinal axis of the house, earthen benches along the inside of the walls, and a roof supported by posts (figs. 2 and 3). The proportionals between the breadth in the middle, 5.35 m, at the end wall, 3 m, the estimated original length, 16—17 m, and similar measurements in house in Trelleborg11 and Kvívík3 correspond intimately.

Although this type of house, the Hall, is regarded as the Scandinavian house of the viking period7, and there are now 2 almost identical specimens in the Faroes3, it is not expedient, without further proof, to make use of the type as a basis for dating, the more so because in this house we have proofs fairly positive that the same building was used permanently for rather a long period, which even the difference in level of about 0.3—0.4 m between the floor and fire5 places seems to show. In the floor level of house VII there is a longfire, 3.5 m in length, 0.5-0.9 m across (fig. 3 and fig. 4; No. 2), below it a fireplace, 2.2 m long, 0.75 m across (fig. 4; No. 3), above a longfire, 4.75 m in length, 0.65—0.75 m across, with an ash*pit in the middle, belonging to house VIII (fig. 2 and fig. 4, No. 4). 

As an addition and parallel to the west wall there is a room, 5.5 m long, with a broad fireplace, 2.25 m long, 0.75 m across, and a
pitched floor, which owing to special circumstances has been only partly examined (house VI). The archaeological finds are so common and their condition of preservation so poor that they are difficult to date exactly. AIl the same vessels of soapstone8 with perpendicular sides (house VII, 9) and tools with Latin crosses cut in (house VII, 8) seem to speak for a dating to somewhere in the Middle Ages. The circumstances of finding contradict rather distinctly a later dating.

Of finds in house VIII pointing towards an earlier dating the following are to be pointed out: Bowlsshaped vessels of soapstone, of these 1 or 2 similar finds in e. g. Trelleborg11, pl. XVII, 2, (house, VIII, 2); yellow, blue, and green glass beads (house VIII, 18), see Kvívík3, p. 29, fig. 12.; moreover, board with ribbon ornament (hous VIII, 12), fig. 8; sinker with ribbon ornament (house VIII, 17), fig. 9; most likely hilt of toy sword (house VIII, 11), fig. 7. Although the ribbon motifs were used for a very long time, partly in this country too, the circumstances of finding and composition of finds compel to an early dating, most likely the beginning of the Middle Ages.

The ribbon motifs, in all probability originally CelticsNorseV2.16.17 together with the characteristic type of house,7,11,13 ndicate contact with the British Isles, or direct settling from there, a circumstance to which the results of the linguistic studies of Chr. Matras9 and the brooch with ribbon ornament from Tjørnuvík5 bear witness. On the whole, this investigation is a valuable supplement to the results at Kvívík3.