Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2006, Page 68

Chrjstopher Callow
Figure 2. Plan of thefurnished tenth-century cemetery at Ytra-Garðshorn
in Svarfaðardalur, northern Iceland illustrating the unique alignment of
grave 5 (that of a child aged 7-12) within the cemetery (after Eldjárn
2000,fig.67).
Toys and miniature objects
In other parts of medieval Scandinavia,
as in other societies, there is sometimes
evidence of children being buried with
objects which might be identified as
toys, such as at Barshalder and Birka
in Sweden where rattles were identified
both in child graves and in those of adult
women (Rundkvist 2003: 62, 70; Grás-
lund). Víga-Glúms saga, one of the Sagas
of Icelanders, refers to an object called
a messingahestr, some kind of bronze
horse with which two boys were playing.
Apparently one such object was exca-
vated at Þingvellir, the foremost medieval
Icelandic assembly site, but has since
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