Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2009, Page 37

ICELANDIC VlKING AGE GRAVES: LaCK IN MATERIAL - LACK OF INTERPRETATION?
of artifacts for intemment (remember-
ing), and the disassociation of others
(forgetting), would have contributed to
the collective displayed, as well as the
memories evoked (Williams 2005, 254).
However, it is hard to imagine that the
presence of such rare and elaborate
things, or their performative significance
in the open grave, would have been of
symbolic nature only. Although gender,
status or power may have been signaled
through their placement on or by the
deceased’s body, their presence was not
symbolic but material. And it was in fact
through their materiality that their value
was gained. The immediate significance
of the object or animal was therefore not
related to some extemal essence but to its
literal presence - the fact that just this
sword, horse or brooch was there, was
seen and was recognized, and could thus
evoke memories, emotions or strengthen
relations. Rather than being a metaphor
for something absent, I believe it was the
object itself and its life history of gath-
ered relations that was of significance,
and brought meaning to the collective
material memory it became part of.
Invisible parts of the collective
So far I have emphasized the demonstra-
tive power of the burial and the signifí-
cance of the elements seen, separately as
well as in relation to each other. However,
not everything was visible during the
ceremony. The contents of pouches or
small bags carried in the belt, document-
ed in several instances represent such a
case. Another example is the contents of
small wooden chests documented in a
few graves, albeit in both instances the
visibility of the container may have
evoked thoughts among those present
and furthered the degree of secrecy. The
content of pouches is usually a collective
of a few small items, often everyday
things, like strike-a-lights with pieces of
flint or jasper, combs, weights, spindle
whorls, knifes and whetstones, but also
items of a less obvious function as small
stones of unusual color or form, conches
or broken beads. In his description of the
Selfoss grave, Eldjárn declared that the
various small items found in the person’s
pouch, a few dark pebbles, one transpar-
ent and a few unusual stones and a conch,
were nothing but worthless reflections of
eccentricity and superstition (Eldjám
1966, 10). In his doctoral thesis (Eldjám
1956), as well as in its re-publication
(Eldjárn 2000), these items are com-
pletely ignored. However, a brief study
of the corpus reveals that such items are
actually among the most commonly
found grave goods. They are documented
in 21 graves, but are most likely under-
represented as they can easily be over-
looked or ignored during excavations.
It is tme that the worth and utility of
these small items may be less apparent
than for example that of an exclusive
sword, a brooch or a cauldron. I would
nevertheless argue that their value was
signifícant although in a different way
and on a different level. During the burial
these items were not meant for display
and hence, their identities or meanings
were not really open to consideration or
negotiation. The reason may have been
that their life histories were known and
entangled with the biography and identity
of one person only, whom they now
accompanied in death as they had through
life. Maybe these invisible small items as
contrasted with those displayed in the
grave, refer to different sides of being a
person and constructing an identity in
Viking Age Iceland. On one side you
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