2015-06-15

Large house at Uppsala no 285

The excavation of the the settlement area Uppsala no 285 are now finished. In a rather small trench about 700 m2 we encountered at least 250 features, most of them postholes. So far we have identified five houses, among them the recently mentioned sunken featured building (e.g. pithouse). The other houses were postbuilt i different ways. The houses can be dated between the 6th-11th C (CE). Here we should take a closer look at one of the houses, house III.

House III


House III can be seen as a three naved house, but as one can see above the roof has also been significantly borne by the walls. Most of the postholes were rather big and up to 0,7 m deep, There are severel indications of subdivision. For example, in the northern part a fireplace were located near the eastern outer wall - a late chronological trait as is the roof-bearing walls. There are also evidence of inside  walls and even a smaller separate room in the SW part. The construction itself points to a 10th-11th C dating and toghether with the finds of unburned animal bones and burnt seeds it seems probable that house had served economic purposes, although the hearth may indicate residence it may have served other purposes as well. The excavated part of the house measures 32x6,5 m, but as we have not found the gables it is probably a bit longer. That makes it the hitherto longest rural Late Iron Age building known so far in Gamla Uppsala. We will come back to this as well as the other houses further on. 

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