new buildings would be constructed on either side. In 1971-75 archaeological excavations had been carried out on the Aðalstræti 14 and 18 lots, revealing relics from the Settlement Age. It was thus known that further relics could be expected to be found at this location, and that archaeological excavations would be necessary before any development of the land could take place. In brief, the Reykjavík City Council decided that the excavations should be carried out, and assigned the Director of the Reykjavík City Museum to supervise the project. Preparation began in the autumn of 2000, when several preliminary trenches were dug on the sites. The Icelandic Institute of Archaeology was appointed to carry out the excavations, which began in January 2001. Before long the remains of a hall were uncovered, and north of it fragments of turf wall. Further examination revealed that the building was of a type known from the Settlement Age, the Icelandic term for the period 870–930, in the middle of the Viking Age. The wall fragments were no less important. They were covered by the Settlement Layer of tephra, from a volcanic eruption believed to have more-or-less coincided with the beginning of the settlement of Iceland. This indicated that the wall had been built before the tephra was deposited. It transpired that the hall was very well preserved: the walls were in good condition, as was the central hearth. Hence it was proposed that the hall should be preserved. The find reawakened debate on the beginnings of Reykjavík, on settlers Ingólfur and his wife Hallveig and the site of the first farmstead. Preliminary ideas on an exhibition and a building for it were drawn up, and the Reykjavík City Council ultimately determined that the site should be preserved, and an exhibition building should be built around it to house an exhibition on the settlement in Reykjavik. In 2001 the Mayor appointed a group to work on ideas on conservation and exhibition of the relics. The group consulted with focus groups and six designers; on the basis of their work with them, they submitted their proposals to the Executive City Council in June 2002. Construction work commenced in the autumn of 2003, and meanwhile the exhibition concepts were developed further. The exhibition 871 ±2 is the fruit of work which has been carried out over the past six years, based on scholars' theories on what the heritage