Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 106

HOWELL M. ROBERTS AND ELÍN ÓSK HREIÐARSDÓTTIR
THE LITLU-NÚPAR BURIALS
Litlu-Núpar is a small abandoned farm site about lOkm south of the town of
Húsavík in north eastem Iceland. The farm site includes many mins and structures,
and itself forms part of a much wider archaeological landscape of exceptional value.
Discoveries at the edge of the home field in 1915 and further study between 2004
and 2010 have revealed the remains of a complex and varied pre-Christian grave
field. These include 9 graves, of people, horses and dogs - and notably one boat
burial. Open area excavation methods have aided in the discovery of secondary and
tertiary structures around the graves themselves, expanding our understanding of the
connectedness of some of the features, and shedding new light on the complexity of
the burial practice. It is cautiously proposed that the boat grave at Litlu-Núpar
functioned as a family burial lot, or mausoleum.
Howell M. Roberts, Fomleifastofnun íslands, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Email: howelI@instarch.is
Elín Osk Hreiðarsdóttir, Fomleifastofnun íslands, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Email: elin@instarch.is
Keywords: Viking Age burials, boat graves, mausolea, excavation
Introduction
Pre-Christian burials have always formed
a key topic in Icelandic archaeology.
Kuml og haugfé the doctoral thesis of
former State Antiquarian Kristján
Eldjám published in 1956 is a pillar of
Icelandic scholarship. A second edition
incorporating much new material and
edited by Adolf Friðriksson was
published in 2000. Since that date
numerous new discoveries have been
made by (amongst others) Friðriksson
and research teams from the Institute of
Archaeology (Fornleifastofnun Islands)
including one of the current authors.
These new discoveries have been aided
by new conceptual departures and
modem techniques of excavation and
analysis (see for example Friðriksson
2009 and 2012, Friðriksson and
Vésteinsson 2011, Pétursdóttir 2007 and
2009, Roberts 2008, Gestsdóttir and
Price 2006, Leifsson 2012). This fast
developing research is seeing a shift
away from previous orthodoxies - that
the Icelandic corpus is predominantly
poor, robbed, and already adequately
understood - towards an acceptance of
the potential of new research to greatly
enhance our understanding of
pre-Christian burial practice in Iceland
and hence Viking Age burial practice in
the larger arena. This shift in
understanding is well illustrated by the
example of Litlu-Núpar. In the year 2000
the original Litlu-Núpar finds seemed
ARCHAEOLOGIA ISLANDICA 10 (2013) 104-130