Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2000, Page 108

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ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
Summary
In the year 1896 the Danish antiquarian Daniel Bruun visited the valley Þjórsárdalur, at
the foot of the volcano Hekla in southern Iceland. He spoke of the valley and its ash-
covered ruins as “the Pompeii of Iceland”.
Thirty six years after Bruun’s visit to the valley, on September the 23rd the Danish
naval inspection vessel Hvidbjornen left Qaqortoq (Julianehaab) in southern Greenland
and set course for Iceland. Aboard the boat were the Danish archaeologists Paul Norlund
and Gudmund Hatt along with the Swedish archaeologist Márten Stenberger, on their
way home from the excavation of the farm of Eric the Red in Brattahlíð in the Eastern
Settlement -, all of them having been sent there by the Danish National Museum. In this
company the idea of a common Nordic excavation project in Iceland was conceived.
The plan was presented a few days later to the Director of the Icelandic National
Museuni, Matthías Þórðarson (1877-1961). However, for a number of reasons, a full
seven years were to pass before the idea was put into practice, but Norlund finally
succeeded in gaining support for the project from the other Nordic countries. Norway,
however decided not to participate.
Nazi Germany also showed an interest in Icelandic archaeology and a German
expedition planned by Himmler's SS-Ahnenerbe was supposed to take place the same
summer. This caused concern among the leading figures in the interscandinavian
expedition, and there was talk of arranging a “Scandinavian week” as a counterweight to
the German presence. The German expedition was called off and this seemingly made
the “Scandinavian week” unneccessary.
The Þjórsárdalur project was finally conducted in the summer of 1939. During two
months a number of farm ruins in Þjórsárdalur and in Borgafjörður (farther up on the
western Icelandic coast) were excavated. The subsequent swift publication was an
exemplary success. The publication of the Þjórsárdalur investigations appeared in Scandi-
navian languages (in Swedish and Danish) in 1943, being a stated wish of the originator
of the project, Poul Norlund.
The Þjórsárdalur project turned out to be of great significance for the study of house
ruins, not only for Iceland, but also for North-Atlantic archaeology.