Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 21

Surveying The Assembly Site And Churches Of Þingeyrar
The topographical survey was carried
out with a Trimble diíferential GPS. The
rover antenna was mounted in a rucksack
on the back of the surveyor and set to auto-
matically log its position every second. The
surveyor walked back and forth in the grid
staked out for the resistance survey, aim-
ing to follow linear paths at 50-cm inter-
vals. Approximately one-third of a hectare
centred on the dómhringur was surveyed
in this manner. A digital terrain model
was created from the logged GPS points in
ArcGIS, using a Gaussian Kriging interpo-
lation algorithm.
An old church and graveyard
The resistivity survey produced the clearest
results south of the dómhringur, where the
remains of a circular enclosure, possible
burials and a church building could be de-
tected. This enclosure and the burials indi-
cate the former cemetery of Þingeyrar. The
enclosure and church remains are marked
by high-resistance anomalies indicating
stone built structures or turf walls enforced
by stones (Figs. 5 and 6). The graveyard wall
encloses an area of approximately 2,500 m2,
measuring 54 m across along a NE-SW di-
rection and up to 48 m across a NW-SE
direction. The resistivity survey covered al-
most the entire wall, with only some parts
in the south and east missing. The north-
ern part of the graveyard wall can also be
observed as a very subtle elevation in the
surface model (see below). An entrance can
be observed on the eastern side. The survey
also revealed two parallel walls leading from
the entrance towards the church, flanking a
2-m-wide access path. The graveyard wall
is interrupted in the SW. The “missing”
part may have been disturbed during later
construction activities, possibly during the
construction of a nearby water reservoir or
a utility line that runs across the graveyard.
According to oral tradition, the last ceme-
tery wall of Þingeyrar was as tall as a man.
Three sides of the wall were made of turf,
three ells broad (c. 1.88 m), whereas the
southern part facing the farm was made of
wood (Harðardóttir 2006, 269-70; Zoéga et
al. 2006, 24). Strong resistance anomalies
were encountered along the southern side
of the enclosure. This finding suggests a
rather massive construction that does not
fit well with the description of a wooden
fence. It is possible, however, that the his-
torically reported fence had stone founda-
tions or - more likely perhaps - that the
encountered anomalies represent the foun-
dations of an earlier stone/turf wall, which
was later replaced by a wooden fence.
A number of small and mostly sub-
tle anomalies in the graveyard may indi-
cate burials. Some of these anomalies are
more pronounced and could denote bur-
ied tombstones. One similar anomaly was
encountered outside the graveyard wall,
approximately 4 m to the west. According
to local tradition, which was reported to
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