The Hvalsey Fjord farms - Excavations at the

Project Details

Roussell\'s report on the 1935-excavations is very brief and the excavations in 2004 were to look into the state of the remaining ruins and – if possible – to collect material for radiocarbon dating.

In 2004 trenches (2 x 4 m) were made in ruin no. 20 (one trench) and ruin no. 22 (three trenches). The excavations in ruin 20 showed that Roussell\'s 1935-excavations had been comprehensive here and not much was left. It was however possible to conclude that the house had functioned for a short period only. The excavations in ruin 22 revealed a single-phase house with flagged floors. This house too had functioned for a short period only.

No material for radiocarbon dating was collected.

After his 1935-excavation Roussell concluded that the site had no dwelling and he interpreted the buildings at Ø83a as byres, stables and barns calling the site a "dairy farm" connected to the adjacent high status farm Hvalsey fjord farm and church, ruin site Ø83 (Roussell 1941).

House 20 had a byre in the western part of the building and most probably it had a dwelling in the eastern end (see also: Vésteinsson 2008). The ground plan of the houses, the layout of the site and the fact that the houses seem to have been used for at short period suggest that the farm was built at an early stage – most probably at landnam and abandoned shortly after. Two explanations for this early abandonment seem possible 1) that the area was taken over by the nearby high status farm at Hvalsey (Ø83) or 2) the farm Ø83a was a predecessor for the Hvalsey Ø83 farm (Vésteinsson 2005).

References

Roussell, Aage 1941. Farms and Churches in the Mediaeval Norse Settlements of Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland vol. 89(1). Copenhagen

Vésteinsson, Orri 2008. Archaeological investigations in Hvalseyjarfjörður, Eystribyggð 2005. Fornleifastofnun Íslands. FS388-05301. Reykjavík

Jette Arneborg, Fuuja Larsen & Niels-Christian Clemmensen, 2009: The "Dairy Farm" of the Hvalsey Fjord Farm. Journal of the North Atlantic. Selected papers from the Hvalsey Conference 2008. Special Volume 2:24-29

Collaborators

Georg Nyegaard, Greenland National Museum & Archives, Nuuk. Then head of Qaqortoq Museum.

Fuuja Larsen, Greenland National Museum & Archives, Nuuk

Niels-Christian Clemmensen, KUAS, The Heritage Agency of Denmark.

Account Owner

Project Collaborators