Hofstaðir

Þau gögn sem birt eru hér, eru geymd á varðveislusniði á Fornleifastofnun Íslands. Einungis eitt gagnamengi er tilbúið til birtingar á vefnum, þ.e. gögn um Hofstaðarannsóknir. Þegar fram í sækir verða fleiri gagnasöfn birt.

Fornleifastofnun mun leitast við að veita aðgang að fleiri stafrænum upplýsingum um íslenska fornleifafræði í gegnum ARENA vefanddyrið. Um er að ræða gögn úr gagnagrunni stofnunarinnar en einnig gögn úr öðrum gagnagrunnum sem tengjast fornleifauppgrefti eða fornleifarannsóknum á Íslandi.

Introduction

The FSÍ in 1991 secured funding to carry out a research evaluation of a possible pagan temple, hof site, at Hofstaðir in Mývatn, NE Iceland which was originally excavated in 1908, with further investigations in 1965. The main aim of the FSÍ project has been to reinvestigate the nature of the site using the most recent archaeological methods. The Hofstaðir excavation has subsequently become the flagship of a wider umbrella project, Landscape of Settlements; an international team of archaeologists, historians and geographers from England, Iceland, Poland, Scotland and USA examining the landscapes of Mývatn. The project has been funded by grants from the Icelandic Research Council (Rannís), the NSF project Landscape of Settlements, the NOS-H project Vestnordisk byggeskik i vikingtid og middelalder and the National Geographic Society.

The focus of the Hofstaðir excavations has been on the area around the Viking skáli and its associated structures including sunken featured buildings, attached and detached ancillary buildings, and related external deposits. Also there has been evaluation of the medieval to post medieval farm mound, as and excavation, which is still continuing, of the chapel and cemetery. See Overview for further detail.

The Digital Archive

The resulting digital archive from the archaeological investigations at Hofstaðir includes data from the skáli, the chapel and cemetery, and the farm mound. The downloadable archives are grouped into Vector, Database, Images, Other, and Report. These are available in a variety of dissemination file formats: text files, JPG images, PDF files, DXF format (CAD v14). Their preservation formats are held by the FSÍ. Download support is available from the ADS website, in the first instance.

The intention of the digital archive being presented here is provide the raw data from the archaeological investigations between 1991 and 2002 to encourage the end-users to carry out their own research and provide the FSÍ with feed back resulting from this work. It is also intended to lead the end-user into the data through particular routes such as the events that took place during the archaeological investigations and the archaeology itself through the structures that they are associated with.

It is also the intended aim that the digital archive being presented will be added to and grow during the ARENA project and beyond; the post-excavation of the main excavation areas, focused on the skáli, is now taking place and as each year and structure is visited new data and further interpretations about the archaeology will take place. Therefore, please return to this web site to refresh your own data and see what is new! The ARENA project programme will also develop further ways to access the data provided here and also that from the 5 other partner countries.

A new area to the archive has been added - Publication. As the monograph for full publication of the site, focused on the skáli area is worked on, new files are created. These include new graphics, new texts, and new ideas concerning the understanding of the archaeology from the site - Publication.