Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 32

30
A DANE AND THE DAWNING OF FAROESE ARCHAEOLOGY
in 1938 travelled to Norway to study ar-
chaeology. In Oslo he attended lectures on
house structures, given by a leading Nor-
wegian authority in the field, Sigurd Grieg
(1894-1973). Dahl also, in 1939, participat-
ed in the excavation of ‘Raknehaugen’, the
biggest burial mound in Norway (Grieg,
1941: 28). A couple of months after the
outbreak of World War II Dahl decided to
abandon his studies and returned to the
Faroe Islands. He was employed by the
Museum in Tórshavn as an assistant and in
1941 Dahl initiated his groundbreaking in-
vestigations at the site Niðri á toft in Kvívík
(Dahl, 1951; 1971 a; 1971b).
In 1944 Petra Djurhuus in her obituary
on Mads Andreas Jacobsen described a
joint visit to Dahl’s excavations in Kvívík
the previous year: ‘In July last year M. A.
Jacobsen, my husband and myself went to
Kvívík to see the excavation of the site.
This was an unforgettable event, a quiet and
sunny day. A11 three of us were very excit-
ed with visiting this ancient settlement,
which so unexpectedly had turned up and
shown what daily life was like hundreds of
years ago’ (Djurhuus, 1944: 117; author’s
translation from Faroese).
Mads Andreas Jacobsen luckily lived to
see his vision fulfilled. The dawning of
Faroese archaeology was turning into full
daylight.
Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to the National Museum of the Faroe
Islands, the Danish Naval Material Command, Bárður
Jákupsson and Signe Hatt Áberg who most kindly an-
swered to my enquiries and placed illustrations at my
disposal. Further, my thanks to the National Library of
the Faroe Islands, the National Archives of the Faroe Is-
lands and the Antiquarian Society of the Faroe Islands
who kindly provided me with information on personali-
ties and institutions mentioned in the article. Finally my
sincere thanks are to Kirsten E. Caning of the Danish
Polar Center for improving my English and to Arne
Thorsteinsson and Jógvan Ravnsfjall for their critical
and constructive comments to the paper.
Resume
I oktober 1932 besøgte den danske kulturgeograf og
arkæolog Gudmund Hatt (1884-1960) Færøerne. Det
skete i forbindelse med hjemrejsen fra sommerens
feltarbejder i Grønland. Som rejsefælle havde Hatt sin
hustru, kunstmalerinden Emilie Demant Hatt (1873-
1958). Ægteparret opholdt sig pá Færøerne i perioden
17.-24. oktober.
Hatt var især interesseret i landbrugshistorie og
arkæologi og fik under sit ophold lejlighed til at træffe
alle de færøske autoriteter pá disse omráder. Inden for
landbrugsomrádet var ekspertisen knyttet til Forsøgssta-
tionen i Hoyvík, hvor Hatt traf sável lederen Ejnar
Knudsen (1888-1949) som landbrugskonsulent Mads
Winther Liítzen (1877-1942).
Hvad det antikvariske angár, var ekspertisen knyttet
til Føroya Forngripafelag, hvis ledende kraft først og
fremmest var bibliotekar Mads Andreas Jacobsen
(1891-1944). Under sit ophold tilbragte Hatt en stor del
af sin tid sammen med Jacobsen samt personer som
Christian Matras (1900-1988), redaktør Poul Niclasen
(1889-1953) og arkivaren Anton Degn (1871-1950).
Ligeledes sørgede Jacobsen for, at Hatt fik lejlighed til
at besøge den stærkt antikvarisk interesserede kongs-
bonde Andreas Weihe (1867-1946) i Selatrað pá Eystur-
oy.
Jacobsen havde ønsket at tage Hatt med til be-
byggelsen Gerðatoftir i Klaksvik, som blev begravet ved
et stort sneskred i 1765. Forngripafelagið havde nemlig
fáet en bevilling pá 300 kroner fra Lagtinget det ár til at
indlede arkæologiske udgravninger pá lokaliteten, og
det er tydeligt, at Jacobsen ønskede at benytte sig af
Hatts ekspertise i planlægningen af udgravningen.
Dárligt vejr forhindrede imidlertid turen til Klaksvík,