Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Síða 61

Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2011, Síða 61
LANDSCAPES OF BURIAL: CONTRASTING THE PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN PARADIGMS OF BURIAL IN VIKING AGE AND MEDIEVAL ICELAND in support of all three scenarios. Christian cemeteries, not known from other sources, have come to light at a number of farms with low valuation fígures. The best studied of these is Keldudalur in Skagafjörður where a partially preserved cemetery has been fully excavated. Keldudalur had a valuation of 20 hundreds, which is low in the local context, and its cemetery seems to have been shortlived as all the graves are from before 1104 (Zoéga 2009). Radiocarbon dates suggesting an 1 lth century date for a Christian cemetery at Steinkirkja in Fnjóskadalur, valued at 10 hundreds, have also been reported (Hermanns-Auðardóttir 1995) but mostly finds of Christian burials at farms where there is no other evidence for church or chapel have not been subject to controlled investigation and remain undated. Significantly such finds are not particularly common at farms with low valuations, and certainly no more frequent than at farms with middle-range or high valuations. Of 24 farms where convincing evidence of Christian cemeteries is the only indication of a church or a chapel, three are valued between one and 12 hundreds, 12 between 13 and 24 hundreds, five between 25 and 36 hundreds and four between 37 and 48 hundreds. These numbers are too small to be statistically significant but if this does reflect the actual distribution it could suggest that in the 1 lth-13th centuries there was a higher proportion of farms in the 13-24 hundred category that had their own cemetery than in the 14th century and later. Looking at the even smaller number of chapels mentioned in narrative sources from the 12th and 13th centuries, again just at those not mentioned in other types of sources, a similar picture emerges. Out of seven, one is at a farm valued at 12 hundreds, three in the 13-24 category; one in the 25-36 category and three in the 37-48 hundreds group. It may be significant that the chapel at the 12 hundred fann, Hvalsker in Patreksfjörður, is mentioned because it had fallen out of use by the closing years of the 12th century (Sturlunga saga, 890). In so far as the charter material allows assessment of this it seems that there was general stability in the number of chapels during the 14th century but by the late 15th century there are clear signs that the system was in decay. A list of chapels and annex churches for 30 ministries in the northem diocese of Hólar reveals that out of 126 annexes and chapels 50, or nearly 40%, were in min (Diplomatarium islandicum V, 352-57). There is evidence for seven chapels or churches in these ministries but which are not included in this list, suggesting that they had been long abandoned by the 1480s. Again this indicates that the late medieval figures can be taken as a minimum and that there had been a reduction in the number of churches and chapels before the charters become available. The idea has long been entertained that there was an intermeddiate stage in burial custom, usually described as graves aligned east-west without grave-goods but not associated with a church and frequently in locations which would be unusual for such a structure while more like that of pagan burials. Kristján Eldjám (1964) suggested he had unearthed such an early Christian cemetery at Jarðbrú in Svarfaðardalur and this idea has also been used to explain isolated finds of apparently non-pagan burials (e.g. BCristinsdóttir 1988, 95-97). A related suggestion is that some churches were originally built, if not on pagan burial 59
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Archaeologia Islandica

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