Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1978, Síða 94

96
ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
á gróðursvæðinu vestar í hlíðinni var heldur ekkert sýnilegt af rúst-
um né mannaverkum.
Þótt kumlin færi í rauninni fáar nýjungar styðja þau heldur en
hitt munnmælin um byggð þarna innfrá á 10. öld. Bærinn í Gjáskóg-
um er um 2 km neðar og er örugglega frá 11. öld, en hér höfum við
enn eitt dæmi um það, hve langt inn á hálendið menn leituðu til ból-
festu á fyrstu tímum fslandsbyggðar.
Athugasemdir.
1) Kristján Eldjárn: Kuml og haugfé úr heiðnum sið á Islandi, Akureyri 1956,
bls. 59—62, og rit sem þar er vitnað til.
2) Petersen, Jan: De norske vikingesverd. Kristiania 1919, bls. 29.
3) Gísli Gestsson og Jóhann Briem: Byggðarleifar í Þjórsárdal. Árbók hins ís-
lenzka fornleifafélags 1954, bls. 16.
SUMMARY.
The present artiele is a report of the sad remains of two graves from the
pre-Christian period (lOth century roughly), discovered in 1978 in the badly ero-
ded area some 4-5 km farther inland than the well-known ruins of the farm Stöng
in Thjorsardalur valley, Southwest-Iceland. The locality is called Hólaskógur.
Four ambei' beads and eleven glass beads, as well as parts of the skeleton, show
that one oí tbt graves was a woman’s grat’e, and a small iron spear head indi-
cates tbat the other one was that of a man, perhaps a half-grownup boy.
The finding of these Viking age graves is particularly interesting because
they seem to underline a fact which in recent years has become more and more
apparent, namely that the Viking settlers of Iceland about 900 A. D. stretched
the habitation much farther inland than anybody would dream of establishing
a farm in later centuries.