Midden Investigations at Brenna, Mývatnssveit, N Iceland, 2002 (field report)

During the 2002 field season of the
(directed by Fornleifastofnun Islands with collaboration by the NABO
cooperative) we visited the abandoned site of Brenna on the shores of Sandvatn
(to the NW of Mývatn). A small farm site now much overgrown with dwarf birch
and willow had clear boundary walls, several room depressions in a small farm
mound, and a clear mounded midden deposit to the NE of the main structure. A
small test pit had been dug some time in the past at the base of the midden
mound, but this appears to have missed the main deposit and is mainly sterile.
Three cores were placed in a line across the upstanding midden mound, and
these demonstrated between 50 and 90 cm of deposit extending down to the
distinctive local LNS. Fish bone, ash, charcoal, bird egg shell (in some quantity),
and burnt mammal bone suggest that this is both a rich and an early deposit.
Logistic problems are considerable however, and supporting or maintaining an
excavation crew on site would be a challenge.