Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags

Volume

Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1966, Page 28

Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1966, Page 28
32 ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS or other dug up the bones and gravegoods from the ancient cemetery. There can hardly be any doubt that this locality, situated at the beach about 4—500 metres from the farm houses, was a graveyard in pagan times, but of the graves, apart from the boatgrave, no traces are visible except a single stoneset grave in which a whetstone and a horse tooth were found. Otherwise the grave had been emptied. The following objects were found in the boatgrave: 30 beads, two of amber, 28 of glass of different colours, usual Viking Age fashion. Thor’s hammer of silver, 3.55 cm iong, very likely an amulet which was worn as a pendant along with the string of beads. Bronze bell, fragmentary, height 2.2 cm; the bell is similar to two such bells previously found in Icelandic Viking Age graves; such bells in all probability are either of Anglo-Saxon or Celtic origin and have been brought to Iceland from Northwest-England. Fragment of a Cufic coin, a dirhem, probably from the period 870—930 A. D. A pendant of gilt bronze, very fragmentary. Two parts of a bronze chain, probably from some personal ornaments. A bronze pin of uncertain use. A piece of lead with an inlaid cross with green colour, probably of enamel. Two bracelets of bronze, of precisely the same kind, plain and open, without ornaments, widest in the middle and tapering off towards the ends. A finger ring of bronze, very plain and simple. Two bone combs and fragments of the third one as well as parts of bone-cases for combs, all made in the usual Viking Age fashion and decorated with simple engraved ornaments. 13 balance-weights of lead, different kinds, the biggest one weighing 24.605 g. Besides this a few unidentifiable fragments of minor importance were found in and around the grave. As will be clear from the list of gravegoods, some of them are in a poor state of preservation owing to the rough treatment of grave robbers. These objects, however, must be looked upon as the outfit of the person originally buried in the boat. When the skeletons from the other graves were removed from them and put into the boatgrave the gravegoods originally accom- panying them must have been taken away by the people at work, no matter who they were and why they did this bone-digging. The author points out that this is the fifth boatgrave found in Iceland. Since Viking Age graves are rather scarce there this figure is sufficiently high to show that the custom of boat burials was well known. Otherwise the find does not add much to what was already known of the general burial customs in pagan times in Iceland, i. e. the lOth century approximately. Most of the artifacts are of kinds previously known from Icelandic finds, the most remarkable exception being the Thor’s hammer. It is interesting to find this heathen symbol side by side with the bell, which must be looked upon as a Christian symbol, and maybe also the cross inlaid in the piece of lead. This reminds us of the fact that some of the early settlers of Iceland, even if they were heathen Norsemen, had stayed for some time in the British Isles and become acquainted with Christianity. A few had actually been baptized. The author points out that at least the bell seems to indicate connections with England, and finally he quotes the Book of Settlements according to which the land in Patreksfjord and in its immediate neighbourhood was settled by people who came to Iceland from the Viking settlements in the British Isles.
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Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags

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