Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2007, Page 87

A REASSESSMENT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHEDRAL AT GARÐAR, GREENLAND
Fig. 6. Norlund ’s plan of Garðar 2 is marked outin dark coloar. WallA was considered by Norlund
to belong only to Garðar 1, but note how well it corresponds with its counterpart in the north
chapel. Norlund considered wall B to be a bench or dais, but note how well its eastern side corre-
sponds with the lengthened choir walls. From Norlund 1930, 33. Lettering by the present author.
believed to be contemporaneous with
Garðar 1. Hence burials beneath this wall
ought to prove the existence of an earlier
church.
In the years since the excavation,
Norlund’s interpretation of the cathe-
dral and its development has been vir-
tually uncontested. But a close reading
of the publication and scrutiny of the
plans, reveal a number of points where
Norlund’s interpretations can indeed be
questioned. In the following section I will
argue that Garðar 1 was indeed the first
church on the site and that the enclosure
south of the church was not built at the
same time as Garðar 1. Furthermore I
will argue that there was an intermediate
phase between Garðar 1 and Garðar 2,
and that there is a possibility of a final
phase in which the cathedral was reduced
to a rectangular church much like the one
at Hvalsey (fig. 7). My reinterpretation of
the history of the cathedral is only based
on the extant material, first and fore-
most the publication from 1930 and the
plans therein. Very little of the original
documentation from the 1926 excavation
exists today and thus the publication is
the main source of knowledge. A single
drawing from one of Knud J. Krogh’s
excavations in the 1970’s will be used to
argue for one of the points as well, but the
drawing is inconclusive.
An alternative development history
Phase 1
There seems to be no reason to doubt,
that Norlund’s idea of the first phase
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