Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Page 60

ADOLF FRIÐRIKSSON AND ORRI VÉSTEINSSON
Figure. 3. The proportion of pagan cemeteries and churches/chapels of the number of farms
according to value categories.
and have to take their dead for burial
elsewhere. Before we consider the
implications of this it is necessary to
discuss how quickly this change is likely
to have come about. As we have seen, the
figures for the churches and chapels are
mostly from the 14th century and later and
it is therfore not possible to claim that this
change was an immediate result of the
conversion; it may have been but it may
also have been more gradual or have come
about as a result of some other changes in
the Christian era, like the development of
the parish system in the 12th-13th
centuries (Vésteinsson 1998, 2005).
Describing the change in burial
paradigm
The pagan burial assemblage, as it has
traditionally been defmed, clearly ceases
around 1000 AD, with only a handful of
finds with very early llth century dates.
This coincides, more or less, with the
beginning of Christian burial which had
clearly become established at that time
and may stretch back to the fmal decades
of the lOth century. These were clearly
significant developments but it is possible
that they do not reflect the whole story.
Some households clearly changed their
burial paradigm, i.e. those that built their
own church with associated cemetery and
it can be assumed that this holds for at
least 45% of farms. But what about the
rest? Three scenarios are possible:
•the remaining 55% actually did build
their own churches with associated
cemeteries but these had fallen out of use
by the 14th century.
• they continued to bury their dead in the
same places or in the same sort of places
as before but without grave goods, thus
in effect making them invisible to
archaeologists looking for pagan or
Christian cemeteries.
• they stopped using their own cemeteries
and negotiated access to, or were forced
to bury their dead in, the cemeteries of
their neighbours.
There is some archaeological evidence
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