Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 14

Adolf Friðriksson
20 more cases in the country where it is
possible to suggest that there are known
burial sites from neighbouring farms.
The distance ranges from c. 1 to 5km,
and the average distance of this group is
close to 2.5km.
These are of course very broad fig-
ures, only intended to give some idea of
the distribution of graveyards within set-
tlement communities. The records are
incomplete, and the landscape across the
country is diverse. This exercise under-
lines the necessity of expanding burial
research in the field from focussing on
single sites at single farms, to pattems of
sites in larger areas. Knowing the possi-
ble distribution of grave fields within a
community area is an important step
towards studying the relationship between
farms and graves, and the role and nature
of each.
Cemetery Morphology
Having observed the general topographi-
cal pattem, let us now take a closer look
at the characteristics of the cemeteries at
these sites. In Iceland, boat burials, cof-
fins and double graves are rare, large
burial mounds are unknown and so are
cremation burials2. All known burials are
inhumation graves, with an average depth
of c. 50 to 100 cm. They were buried into
natural hillocks or had a small man-made
mound on top, of earth and stone, no
higher than c. 1 m, and up to c. 5 m in
diameter. As most of the sites have been
disturbed by natural erosion or during
construction and cultivation, the original
height and size of the mounds is not
known. So far, no fences, ring ditches or
stmctures have been found surrounding
2 Recently, on the basis of a few, calcined fragments of
a human skull, claims have been made for the“first
scientifically documented evidence of cremation” at
Hrísbrú, SW-Iceland: Byock, J. et al. (2006).
the grave sites. However, this absence
has not been tested either, as complete
excavation of a whole cemetery site has
never taken place in Iceland.3
Site plans exist for less than 10% of
excavated sites, and most of those maps
are only simple sketches. Although there
are many vital details missing, there are
other, well recorded and quantifiable
aspects of cemetery configuration which
are certainly worth further inspection.
Before discussing the basic form of buri-
al grounds, we shall examine two impor-
tant variables, viz. the number of graves
at each cemetery, and the space between
graves.
Figure 1. Site plan of the Traðarholt-Skipar
burials, sketched in 1897, ie. 17 years after
excavation in 1880. The sketch is very sim-
ple, but invaluable, as mounds nr. 2, 3 and 4
have since disappeared (Eldjárn 2000,
71-72).
Numbers of graves
At first glance, the whole corpus of avail-
able data shows that grave fields in
Iceland are predominantly small in size,
ranging from 1 to c. 13 graves (table 1).
3 Total excavation of the cemeteries at Litlu-Núpar,
Ingiríðarstaðir and Hringsdalur are in progress.
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