Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 24

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 24
Joris Coolen And Natascha Mehler Konrad Maurer during his visit in 1858, three small mounds to the northwest of the graveyard, the so-called Munkaleiði or Djáknaleiðiy marked the burials of monks who had been denied burial in hallowed earth (Jónsson 1967, 2; Maurer 1997, 191; Zoéga et al. 2006, 16-17). It is possible that the small anomaly outside the grave- yard wall represents one of these alleged burials. The church foundation is located in the southern half of the graveyard and is ori- ented along a WNW-ESE direction. It con- sists of a nave with an apse in the east. The wall remains do not constitute a continu- ous anomaly. They are clearest in the north and east, whereas the southern and western walls are barely recognisable. This structure may again be due to later disturbance or may indicate diíferent construction types. A modern tractor track runs directly west of the church past the graveyard monu- ment and possibly cuts the western gable. A utility line (most likely an electricity line) also runs across the old graveyard towards the modern church. The nave is 9 m wide and at least 15 m long. However, if a separate anomaly to the west is interpreted as the western gable, the length of the nave would be 23 m, which seems exceptionally long for an early mod- ern or medieval church in Iceland. Hence, we deem the first interpretation more like- ly. In this case, the fact that the western ga- ble is not visible in the resistivity data could indicate that the gable was made of wood without a major stone foundation, as is common for turf churches in Iceland (e.g. Stefánsson 1997, 28 and Fig. 3). A number of regularly spaced, positive anomalies in the interior of the church may be interpret- ed as column bases. The apse is marked by a strong anom- aly, which makes it diíficult to identify the exact size and shape of the outer wall. The large anomaly may be caused by a stone- paved ftoor or heavy foundation. The apse is at least 4.5 m wide and 3.5 m long and appears to be semi-circular, which again is unusual for Icelandic churches. Results from the dómhringur The resistivity survey and the surface model provide a clear representation of the outline and structure of the dómhringur (Figs. 7 and 8), but the interpretation of the structure 's function is problematic. The in- terior of the dómhringur and the inner sides of the banks produce significantly lower and more homogenous resistance com- pared to the surrounding area, which may be the result of water accumulation, as the earthen bank retains surface water. How- ever, the low resistance could also be due to other soil formation or accumulation processes that have taken place inside the structure. The surface model shows that the interior of the structure is 20-30 cm higher than the surrounding area.

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Archaeologia Islandica

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