Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 13

11
A Dane and the Dawning
of Faroese Archaeology
Ein Dani og Byrjanin til Føroyska Fornfrøði
Stejfen Stummann Hansen
Senior researcher, Danish PolarCenter, Strandgade 100 H, DK-1401 Copenhagen K
email: ssh@dpc.dk
Úrtak
I oktober 1932 vitjaðu Gudmund Hatt, professari í
búlandafrøði við Københavns Universitet, og kona
hansara, Emilie Denrant Hatt, listamálari, í Føroyum í
seks dagar á veg heim frá rannsóknum í Grønlandi. Um-
franrt at vera búlandafrøðingur var Hatt eisini ein av
fremstu serfrøðingum í fornfrøði viðvíkjandi byggisið-
um. Serstakliga hevði Hatt áhuga fyri landbúnaðar-
skipanum, og meðan hann var staddur í Føroyum, tók
hann eisini lut í einum lítlunr fornfrøðiligum útgrevstri
av eini húsatoft nærindis Tórshavn; hesin grevstur varð
fyriskipaður av Føroya forngripafelag. Fornfrøðiliga
umhvørvið, sunr Hatt rakti við í Føroyum, gevur á
nrangan hátt eina mynd av upprunanum at føroyskari
fornfrøði.
Abstract
ln October 1932, on his way home from field-work in
Greenland, Gudmund Hatt, professor of Human
Geography at University of Copenhagen, and his wife
Emilie Demant Hatt, an artist painter, visited the Faroe
Islands for six days. Besides being a human geographer
Hatt was also a leading authority in the field of the
archaeology of buildings. Hatt was particularly
interested in farnring systems but duritrg his stay in the
Faroe Islands he also took part in a small archaeological
excavation of a house site near Tórshavn, conducted by
the Antiquarian Society of the Faroe Islands. The
antiquarian and archaeological environment which Hatt
encountered in the Faroe Islands in many respects
reflected the dawning of Faroese archaeology.
Introduction
On June lst 1932 a group of Danish schol-
ars gathered at the pier in Copenhagen Har-
bour in order to go onboard the vessel ‘M/S
Disko’ of the Royal Greenland Trade De-
partment. They were members of the Dan-
ish archaeological expeditions to Green-
land that summer. Most attention was prob-
ably attached to the expedition led by Poul
Nørlund (1888-1951), the historian of the
Danish National Museum, who was accom-
panied by Swedish archaeologist Márten
Stenberger (1898-1973) of the University
of Uppsala. They were heading for Qassiar-
suk in the core-land of the Eastern Settle-
ment of Norse Greenland to excavate what
was supposed to be the Brattahlið of the
sagas, the farmstead of the very founder of
Norse Greenland, Eric the Red.
Attached to Nørlund’s expedition, how-
ever, was another important though less
spectacular and prestigious project, which
was established and conducted by Gud-
mund Hatt (1884-1960), the professor of
Human Geography at University of Copen-
hagen. Hatt had, among other things, for a
number of years extensively recorded and
excavated fíeld-systems and house-sites of
Fróðskaparrit 50. bók 2002: 11 -32