STÖNG, ÞÓRSÁRDALUR VALLEY, ICELAND
Iceland was the subject of an expedition undertaken between
1934 and 1939 by a joint excavation team of Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Icelandic archaeologists.[107]
I show as a typical example of the results of this
expedition, the plan and excavation photos of the dwelling
of a farm called Stöng in þórsárdalur Valley (fig. 292A-C)
which was settled during the landnám period at the end of
the ninth century and covered by the ashes of nearby
Mount Hekla in an eruption in the year 1300. The dwelling
unit of this farmstead consisted of a long house 98 feet
long, divided into foreroom, sleeping house, living house
(forstofa, area I; skáli, area II; stofa, area III), milkhouse
(area IV), and cooler (area V). The sleeping hall was
54 feet long and 19 feet wide. Its aisles were raised so
as to form continuous "benches"—the langpallar of
Gudmundsson's Saga house. Inserted into the curbs
of these benches about every 6 feet were large blocks
which served as base stones for the wooden uprights that
once supported the roof of the hall (fig. 292B). The fireplace
lay in the middle of the center floor. Two shallow stone
foundations which bisected the aisles crosswise suggest that
the sleeping hall was subdivided by means of wooden cross
partitions into a sleeping house for men (karlskáli) and
another for women (kvennaskáli)—a distinction also well
known from the Sagas. And judging from the presence of
two rows of stones ranged carefully along the base line of
the two long walls, the hall must have been wainscotted
its entire length (the veggþili or langþili of the Sagas).
There was a "crossbench" (þverpallr) on the entrance
side of the hall, raised like the aisles and screened off by a
wooden cross wall. I am drawing attention to this house not
only because it is the keystone of cumulative archaeological
evidence that established the correctness of Gudmundsson's
literary work, but also because this dwelling may date from
the same century in which the Plan of St. Gall was drawn.
During the Iceland expedition of 1934-39 a total of eight
such houses was unearthed. But by the time these excavations
were conducted, discoveries of even greater significance
were in progress on the Continent.
