Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 58

ADOLF FRIÐRIKSSON AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
back to the 1 lth century, in some cases
demonstrably to the decades around 1000
(Vésteinsson 2000a 45-57; Vésteinsson
2005,73-76) and that the tide of change in
the 12th-13th centuries was rather in the
direction of the chapels decreasing in
number rather than new ones being
established - although isolated examples
of this can be found (e.g. Diplomatarium
Islandicum IV, 454-55).
This means that the 14th century
figures can be used as a guide to the
minimum number of churches and chapels
in the 1 lth century.
The new survey of chapels and
churches has so far registered evidence for
such structures associated with 1492
farms. To place this number in context
there were about 350 parish churches in
the 13th-14th centuries (down to some
265 by 1900). Of the non-parish churches,
some 300 were classified as annex
churches, with varying degrees of service
while the remainder, more than 1000,
were chapels. These were much less
ffequently visited by priests and were
essentially private in nature, serving as
places of prayer and funerals of household
members (Vésteinsson 2000a, 288;
Víkingur 1970, 134-36). The evidence for
chapels and churches is very variable in
type, age and quality, ranging from
archaeological remains, place names and
traditions recorded in the 18th and 19th
centuries to medieval deeds of sale and
church charters. It is the latter two types of
evidence that account for the largest
number and it is the charters in particular
that give the clearest picture of the late
medieval ecclesiastical landscape. There
is a significant number of charters which
describe both the size of the parish, the
number of farms belonging to it, and the
number, and sometimes location, of the
chapels and annex churches within its
boundaries. A study of these charters
reveals that in 152 parishes (43% of the
total) there were 681 churches and chapels
to 1525 farms, or a ratio of 45%. If there
were some 4000 farms in the country in
total as has been estimated (Lárusson
1967, 25-27; Víkingur 1970, 185-219)
this would come out as c. 1800 churches
and chapels in the late medieval period
(cf. Víkingur 1970, 134). There was
therefore a chapel or church to every
second or third farm in the country as a
whole. However there are significant
regional differences in this ratio, ranging
from nearly 60% in the eastem quarter to
33% in the westem, with 51% in the south
and 43% in the north. This may partly be
due to the vagaries of charter preservation
as a higher ratio of chapel/church to farm
correlates to a higher ratio of charter
survival but the difference is nevertheless
real as can be seen from comparing the
one region in the westem quarter with
good charter preservation, Snæfellsnes
where in eight parishes the ratio is only
27%, with five parishes in Fljótsdalshérað
in the East, where the ratio is nearly twice
as high or 51%. These differences are
intriguing but at present it is not possible
to say whether they reflect original, i.e.
llth century, settlement pattems or
whether they are a result of developments
in the intervening period. For our present
purposes it is enough to note that even in
the region of densest church and chapel
building there may have been up to a 50%
reduction in the number of cemeteries
associated with the conversion in the 1 lth
century. If we next look at the distribution
of farms with churches and chapels into
value categories another distinct
difference emerges.
When cases of questionable or
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