Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 14

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 14
Adolf Friðriksson 20 more cases in the country where it is possible to suggest that there are known burial sites from neighbouring farms. The distance ranges from c. 1 to 5km, and the average distance of this group is close to 2.5km. These are of course very broad fig- ures, only intended to give some idea of the distribution of graveyards within set- tlement communities. The records are incomplete, and the landscape across the country is diverse. This exercise under- lines the necessity of expanding burial research in the field from focussing on single sites at single farms, to pattems of sites in larger areas. Knowing the possi- ble distribution of grave fields within a community area is an important step towards studying the relationship between farms and graves, and the role and nature of each. Cemetery Morphology Having observed the general topographi- cal pattem, let us now take a closer look at the characteristics of the cemeteries at these sites. In Iceland, boat burials, cof- fins and double graves are rare, large burial mounds are unknown and so are cremation burials2. All known burials are inhumation graves, with an average depth of c. 50 to 100 cm. They were buried into natural hillocks or had a small man-made mound on top, of earth and stone, no higher than c. 1 m, and up to c. 5 m in diameter. As most of the sites have been disturbed by natural erosion or during construction and cultivation, the original height and size of the mounds is not known. So far, no fences, ring ditches or stmctures have been found surrounding 2 Recently, on the basis of a few, calcined fragments of a human skull, claims have been made for the“first scientifically documented evidence of cremation” at Hrísbrú, SW-Iceland: Byock, J. et al. (2006). the grave sites. However, this absence has not been tested either, as complete excavation of a whole cemetery site has never taken place in Iceland.3 Site plans exist for less than 10% of excavated sites, and most of those maps are only simple sketches. Although there are many vital details missing, there are other, well recorded and quantifiable aspects of cemetery configuration which are certainly worth further inspection. Before discussing the basic form of buri- al grounds, we shall examine two impor- tant variables, viz. the number of graves at each cemetery, and the space between graves. Figure 1. Site plan of the Traðarholt-Skipar burials, sketched in 1897, ie. 17 years after excavation in 1880. The sketch is very sim- ple, but invaluable, as mounds nr. 2, 3 and 4 have since disappeared (Eldjárn 2000, 71-72). Numbers of graves At first glance, the whole corpus of avail- able data shows that grave fields in Iceland are predominantly small in size, ranging from 1 to c. 13 graves (table 1). 3 Total excavation of the cemeteries at Litlu-Núpar, Ingiríðarstaðir and Hringsdalur are in progress. 12

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