Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1965, Page 62

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
In Iceland Viking graves usually are situated quite near the farms, but this
one seems to be an exception from that rule. The burial place was a gravel
bank on the edge of a very steep and rocky riverbed (fig. 3). Grave robbers
had done their work rather thoroughly, but the main features of the burial
were clear. Size of grave 180 x 75 cm, original depth unknown because of wind
erosion. Orientation SW-NE, head in SW end. Remains of the skeleton of a
young woman. Gravegoods (left by the robbers): two glass beads, two tin butt-
ons, several fragments of iron, obviously from smashed artifacts. At the NE end
of the grave there was the skeleton of a horse with a strap buckle and a few
rivets from a saddle (fig. 4). Although the grave robbers had been hard upon
the grave it can be described as a typical lOth Icelandic burial.
8. Ljótsstaöir, Hofshreppur, Skagafjaröarsýsla: A lamentably badly treated
Viking Age grave with remains of bones from a man and a horse. Orientation
WSW-ENE, the man’s head almost certainly in the WSW end, horse-grave at
the foot end. Remains of gravegoods: two whetstones, iron fragment and a 2,3x4,3
cm wide strap end of whalebone with a very skilfully carved human face or mask,
seen en face, showing fully developed the characteristics of the Mammen-style of
the late lOth century, fig. 5.
9. Austarihóll, Haganeshreppur, Skagafjaröarsýsla: In 1964 the author exca-
vated a Viking Age grave situated some 100 meters southwest of the farmhouses
at Austarihóll in the valley Flókadalur on the North coast of Iceland (fig. 6).
The grave was very regular, 4 m long, 1 m wide, dug some 20—30 cm down
into the gravel, orientation NE-SW (fig. 7). In the NE end there was an un-
disturbed skeleton of a horse (fig. 8), and close to it a horse sting of iron. In the
other end of the grave the body of a man obviously must have been buried, but
oddly enough not a single bone from his skeleton was found. There can hardly
be any doubt that the bones must have been unearthed for some reason, most
likely because the relatives of the dead man have wished to transfer them to a
Christian graveyard after the conversion of the Icelanders to the Christian faith,
an event which took place in the year 1000 A. D., in other words a few years
or decades after the man was buried. The following gravegoods were found
(fig. 9): A spear liead, 5 arrow heads, a pair of scissors, a spindle whorl of lead,
fragments of a bone comb, a horse sting, some iron nails and fragments of rusty
iron, a few bits of charcoal.
10. Ytra-Garöshorn, Svarfaöardalshreppur, Eyjafjaröarsýsla: In this locality
in the North of Iceland the author has investigated one of the most remarkable
Viking Age burial fields known in Iceland, fig. 10. There were 10 graves in all, but
most of them had suffered considerably from the activity of grave robbers. The
general pattern of the burial custom, however, is perfectly clear, as most of the
graves had the same main features, very similar to those already observed in
no. 7 and 9 (Öxnadalsheíði and Austarihóll) in this report. The orientation of
the graves was slightly different, but generally speaking they were orientated
SW-NE, head of the buried person certainly in the SW end as shown for instance
in grave 3, which was less disturbed than all the rest, fig. 14. In the foot end
of the graves a horse had been buried in most, but not all, cases. The graves
were fairly regular in shape, as shown on the drawings, they had been dug some
50—80 cm deep and covered by a layer of stones after being filled with earth. On
top of the stone layer there probably was a small mound, which never was very
conspicuous and has almost completely disappeared in the course of time. On the