Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 51

THE LEIRVÍK “B0NHÚSTOFTIN” AND THE EARLY CHRISTIANITY OF THE FaROE ISLANDS, AND BEYOND
land and the entire North Atlantic region,
from the Faroe Islands as far west as New-
foundland (Fanning 1994, 30-36, fig. 12;
Larsen and Stummann Hansen 2001,
121-124). In addition, there is linguis-
tic evidence for connections that existed
between the Hiberno-Scandinavians and
the population of the Faroe Islands and
Iceland (Matras 1957; Ó Cuiv 1988; Mat-
ras et al. 2004).
Given the archaeological and
related evidence for connections between
Ireland and the North Atlantic region
during the Viking Age, it is clear that a
context existed for the transmission of
concepts relating to the form and mor-
phology of ecclesiastical sites. The Heb-
ridean churches noted above have paral-
lels in Ireland, rather than elsewhere in
Scotland, and are of crucial importance
in this regard as they may demonstrate
Irish or Hiberno-Scandinavian influence
in a group of islands which formed part
of the Scandinavian periphery of the
North Atlantic cultural province. It is of
interest to note in this context that there
is historical evidence linking the Scan-
dinavians in Ireland with the Hebridean
Flatnose dynasty, as well as a literary
tradition that links this dynasty with the
early Viking-Age settlement of the Faroe
Islands (Smyth 1984, 155-171).
A number of very significant
discoveries, relevant to this topic, have
recently been made during the post-exca-
vation work on the finds from Toftanes, a
Viking-age farmstead at Leirvík which is
situated a mere 500 m from the Bonhús-
toftin. Among the many well-preserved
wooden objects from this site an almost
complete cross has been identified as well
as a fragment of another cross; there are
stylistic affinities between these crosses
and the form of Irish Early Medieval
crosses (Stummann Hansen forthcoming
B) (Fig. 15). The mean date range for the
C-14 dates from the site is 860-970 (Vick-
ers et al. 2005, Table I), and as the two
crosses derive from the earliest deposits
at the site, they represent hard archaeo-
logical evidence for the presence of a
Christian community in the Faroe Islands
well before the official conversion of
around 1000 AD. The material finds from
the site, ringed pins, etc., clearly suggests
that the Toftanes settlers derived from a
Hiberno-Scandinavian background.
In this connection it is also worth
noting that ‘classical’ pagan Viking-age
graves have never been found in the
Faroe Islands. The graves from Tjornuvík
are devoid of grave goods, except for a
ringed pin of Hiberno-Scandinavian type
and a few other small personal items
(Dahl and Rasmussen 1956). This was
later interpreted by Dahl as an indicator
that the earliest Viking-age settlers on
the Faroe Islands may have derived from
the Scandinavian settlements in Ireland
rather than ífom Scandinavia itself (Dahl
1971 a, 65). Apart from Tjornuvík, the
only other Viking-age graveyard so far
recorded in the Faroe Islands is the site
of Heima á Sandi, on the island of Sand-
oy. Here, twelve graves were excavated.
They were all orientated east-west and
contained very sparse grave-goods of per-
sonal character, including a small bronze
item with an Irish design. These graves,
in many respects, give the impression of
being Christian, although the excavators,
despite a number of arguments, prefer to
remain completely open on this question
(Arge and Hartmann 1992, 17-20).
It may therefore be suggested
that the Faroe Islands in the Viking Age
were part of a Christian, or at least part-
ly-Christianised, Hiberno-Scandinavian
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