Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Síða 17

Surveying The Assembly Site And Churches Of Þingeyrar
Building date Founder Construction
early 12th century Bishop Jón Ögmundarson ?
? ? ?
1619 Páll Guðbrandsson turf building
1695 Lárus Gottrup stave church
1819 Björn Ólsen turfbuilding
1864-1877 Ásgeir Einarsson stone church
Table 1. Historically recorded churches at Þingeyrar (after HarSardóttir 2006; Zo'éga et al. 2006).
The gap between the 12"' and the early 17h centuries represents a hiatus in documentation. It is
likely that there was a succession of churches in thisperiod but how many is not known.
of grave stones were lifted and put together
on a monument near the centre of the old
cemetery, which today is the only remaining
evidence of the old cemetery (Harðardóttir
2006; Jónsdóttir 2006; Zoéga et al. 2006,24).
The dómhringur at Þingeyrar
In the late 19th century, a number of Icelan-
dic assembly sites were investigated by anti-
quarians, including Þingeyrar (Friðriksson
1994, 105-46). The antiquarians paid close
attention to so-called dómhringar (ON
dómr = court, judgement, and hringur =
circle; dómhringur singl.), round structures
that were identified at almost every assem-
bly site. Dómhringar, or court circles, de-
scribed in medieval literature, were thought
to be solid constructions for hosting pan-
els of judges during their discussions, and
according to Grágás, the law court was
seated in a dómhringur1 (Friðriksson and
Vésteinsson 1992, 27-28). However, critical
research of a number of alleged dómhringar
has shown that they have little more in
common than their (more or less) round
shape. A review of the written evidence has
shown that the term dómhringur had two
different meanings in the 13th century; it
could either refer to a panel of judges sit-
ting in a circle, or it could designate a cir-
cular construction made of turf or stone
(or both), in which heathen sacrifices took
place (Friðriksson and Vésteinsson 1992).
Systematic archaeological research in the
early 1990s, concentrating on the West of
Iceland, has shown that most of the alleged
28 dómhringar in that region neither had
any common characteristic features nor
were they any different from structures
with agricultural character. Some of them
were not even part of assembly sites. Ihe
excavated examples were determined be
an enclosure for a cemetery and an enclo-
sure for the storage of hay (Friðriksson and
Vésteinsson 1992: esp. 27-31; 38-56 with
Figs. 8, 13 and 17).
1 „...oc sitia í dom hring...“ Grágás Ia, 82; for an overview on the Icelandic sources that mention dómhringar,
see Friðriksson and Vésteinsson. 1992, 27-31.
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