Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.2010, Page 183

182 ÁRBÓK FORNLEIFAFÉLAGSINS
Conference of Nordic Archaeologists 6.-9. September 2001 Akureyri Iceland. Ritstj. Garðar
Guðmundsson. Rv. 2004.
Þór Magnússon: Sögualdarbyggð í Hvítárholti. Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags 1972,
(Rv. 1973).

Summary
Underground tunnels have been found associated with various medieval settlements
throughout Iceland. Three of them have been excavated showing two types of
constructions: one earth-cut underground tunnel and two dry-stone built semi-
underground passages in prepared trenches. When going through the medieval
documentary material on underground tunnels, one can see that the authors make
a distinction between these two types by using different terms for them, jarðhús and
forskáli respectively. In all the examples, jarðhús are described as secret escape routes
or as hiding places. They are often tunnels, most frequently leading from a bed-closet
in the hall to a river bank, similar to the one excavated at Keldur on Rangárvellir,
where you could sneak out unseen from an enemy coming to the farm. On the
other hand, there is nothing secret about the forskálar, as they could be seen on the
surface. But these buildings seems often to have been in association with churches
and even ramparts and may have served as a shelter for people on their way from the
farm buildings to the sanctuary of the church and the defensive structures around it.
From the documentary material one might suggest that jarðhús are an older type of
building structures than forskálar. It is difficult to make such a conclusion based on
the archaeological material alone since the examples of excavated tunnels are so few.
On the other hand, from a historical perspective this is a likely explanation, since the
increasing power of the church in the 12th and 13th centuries would have necessitated
greater protection from potentially violent rivals. The very physical presence of a
forskáli would have been both an advertisement of the church’s wealth and defensive
resources, making attacking forces hesitate before sacking these sacred political and
economic powerhouses. The theory could then be, that in the 10th-12th centuries,
the making of jarðhús, secret structures, were more efficient, when you could not
depend on taking sanctuary in a church. These hidden escape routes were made at
critical times and perhaps not were expected to stand for very long periods of time
since once they had been discovered, they became useless. With the increasing power
of the church in the 12th and 13th centuries, farmers began to build more permanent
tunnels, forskálar, and the need for having them secret was not necessary. Forskálar
become a permanent part of the farm complex as seen by the greater effort was put
into their construction by making them of stones. It can be said then, that these
defensive structures developed from jarðhús to forskálar.
It is very likely that the idea of making underground tunnels for escape and
refuge originated from Ireland. The Irish souterrains have been interpreted in a very
similar way as the Icelandic underground structures and the Icelandic jarðhús (earth
houses) and man-made hellar (caves) can in fact be called souterrains. The differences
have perhaps primarily to do with dissimilar landscapes and social conditions. The
easiest way to make a souterrain in Iceland was to excavate passages and chambers in
the sandstone; in other words to make a hellir, making these constructions the most
common form of a souterrain. In Ireland the environment made it perhaps easiest to