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.