Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 47

THE LeIRVÍK “B0NHÚSTOFTIN” AND THE EaRLY CHRISTIANITY OF THE FaROE ISLANDS, AND BEYOND
Figure 11. Distribution map of church sites with circular or sub-circular enclosures. Computer-
graphics: M. C. Krause.
sophisticated than the skin-covered boats
which are often considered to be typical
of the Early Medieval Irish sailors (Breen
and Forsythe 2004, 45-49). However,
much further analysis of the historical
and archaeological evidence needs to be
undertaken before a final conclusion on
these matters can be reached.
Any further analysis of the
archaeological record must inevitably
commence with the well-known group of
cross-inscribed slabs from Ólansgarður,
on the small island of Skúvoy. This com-
prises over a dozen slabs, formed of the
local basalts and tuffs, which in the main
display encircled linear and outline cross-
es. Some, but not all, of these have been
published, in greater or lesser detail, by
authorities such as Kermode (1931) and
Krogh (1990), and their general simi-
larity to cross-inscribed slabs of Early
Medieval date from Ireland and Scotland
has often been noted. It has recently been
stated, for instance, that “all of these show
clear “Irish” influence and have no close
Scandinavian parallels” (Fisher 2002,
40). Obviously, this potential connection
between Ireland and the Faroe Islands is
of considerable relevance to the ques-
tion under consideration in this paper, in
that if these slabs can be demonstrated to
date to before the Scandinavian landnám
period then archaeological evidence will
have been identified that supports the lit-
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