Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 126

Gavin Lucas
Fig. 2. Brúsastaðir, by Brynjúlfur Jónsson (Arbók
1895).
Finnur Jónsson, Matthías Þórðarson,
Kristján Eldjárn, Gísli Gestsson, Þór
Magnússon, and Sveinbjöm Rafnsson
between them account for more or less all
the archaeological images (and fíeld-
work) produced between 1880 and 1980.
However, this does not mean the devel-
opment of imagery is purely idiosyncrat-
ic, for these individuals were working
within a wider context and were no doubt
aware, certainly in most cases, of genres
of archaeological illustration elsewhere.
Indeed, of this group two figures stand
out in marking major transformations in
the nature of illustration (and fieldwork):
Daniel Bmun and Kristján Eldjám.
Daniel Bmun was a Danish soldier,
war correspondent and cartographer, who
worked in Iceland over the late 19th and
early 20th century; originally investigat-
ing Norse settlements in Greenland, he
came to Iceland for comparative material
and found it even more rewarding.
Although some of his work occurs in
joumal articles, the bulk of his investiga-
tions were published in book form in
1897, revised in 1928 (Bmun 1928). His
military and cartographic background -
he worked as a guide with a team of
Danish surveyors in Iceland for a
while - has a clear influence on his
drawings which stand out against ear-
lier archaeological illustration in
Iceland, especially Brynjúlfur Jónsson
who apart from Bmun, was perhaps
the most prolific fieldworker in the
country in the late 19th and early 20th
century. Among Bruun's more distinc-
tive traits are: his lines are sharper with
no extraneous shadings; he employed
contours rather than hachures; he
always incorporated a scale; he often
shows finer resolution in his drawings of
structures; and he often shows the limits
of his excavation (Figure 1). None of
these aspects can be seen on Brynjúlfur
Jónsson's drawings (Figure 2). Bmun's
impact however was significant more
because of the prolific nature of his work,
rather than necsessarily influencing oth-
ers. Finnur Jónsson who worked with
Bmun, either used or copied Bmun's
drawings, but the drawings of Matthías
Þórðarson, who dominated archaeology
inthe 1920s and 1930s, are little different
from Brynjúlfur Jónsson, half a century
earlier, save the adoption of a scale
(Figure 3). The only exception to this is
the work of Þorsteinn Elringsson who
was working in Iceland before Bruun,
and whose illustrations are comparable to
Bmun (Erlingsson 1899). He also made
extensive sketches of both mins and his
excavations, as well as being the first to
employ photography in the field.
It is not until the 1940s with the arrival
of Kristján Eldjám that archaeological
illustration in Iceland shows another
major shift comparable to Bmun. The
critical influence on Eldjám's fieldwork
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