Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2013, Page 131

THE LITLU-NÚPAR BURIALS
The detailed research into the
pre-Christian burials Litlu-Núpar allow
us to expand the range of possibility,
intricacy and complexity of the burial
rite. New ideas about burial topography
have driven the discovery of new sites
and the rediscovery and expansion of the
older finds. Much of the existing corpus
of burial material is the result of chance
fínds and those investigations are
typifíed by limited time and resources, as
was the inevitable nature of such
investigations in Iceland 50 or 100 years
ago. Only a few can be said to be the
result of deliberate, considered research
programs. New research, such as the one
at Litlu-Núpar, demonstrates how much
more we have yet to discover and how
little we can satisfactorily explain today.
Unpromising, antiquarian discoveries are
seen to be only the tip of a very large
iceberg. If Litlu-Núpar only begins to let
us map the limits of our previous
understanding, then it is at least a step
closer to a new one. It is our conviction
that the re-examination of any and all of
the known sites is a worthwhile
endeavour and that few if any of the
known sites have exhausted their
potential for further study.
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