Overview
About Eiriksstadir Viking Longhouse
What excavation reveals
Investigations have identified a small longhouse and a sunken building, or pithouse, at the early farm. The museum dates the remains broadly within the Viking Age, approximately 850–1000. Finds include nails, loom weights, whetstones and a broken spindle whorl; the pithouse may have served activities such as textile production. Excavations took place in several campaigns, including 1895, 1938 and 1997–2002. These physical remains document an early household, while the named family's connection belongs to the site's saga tradition.
Reconstructing a household
The replica longhouse was built in 1999 as an experimental archaeology project using methods, materials and tools appropriate to the period. Its shared interior presents cooking, sleeping, work and storytelling within one domestic space. The museum interprets the lives of farmers and craftspeople alongside the better-known voyaging stories. The reconstruction and the original foundations serve different purposes: one tests and illustrates an interpretation of building and household life, while the other preserves archaeological evidence.
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