Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 24

Joris Coolen And Natascha Mehler
Konrad Maurer during his visit in 1858,
three small mounds to the northwest of
the graveyard, the so-called Munkaleiði or
Djáknaleiðiy marked the burials of monks
who had been denied burial in hallowed
earth (Jónsson 1967, 2; Maurer 1997, 191;
Zoéga et al. 2006, 16-17). It is possible
that the small anomaly outside the grave-
yard wall represents one of these alleged
burials.
The church foundation is located in the
southern half of the graveyard and is ori-
ented along a WNW-ESE direction. It con-
sists of a nave with an apse in the east. The
wall remains do not constitute a continu-
ous anomaly. They are clearest in the north
and east, whereas the southern and western
walls are barely recognisable. This structure
may again be due to later disturbance or
may indicate diíferent construction types.
A modern tractor track runs directly west
of the church past the graveyard monu-
ment and possibly cuts the western gable.
A utility line (most likely an electricity line)
also runs across the old graveyard towards
the modern church.
The nave is 9 m wide and at least 15 m
long. However, if a separate anomaly to the
west is interpreted as the western gable, the
length of the nave would be 23 m, which
seems exceptionally long for an early mod-
ern or medieval church in Iceland. Hence,
we deem the first interpretation more like-
ly. In this case, the fact that the western ga-
ble is not visible in the resistivity data could
indicate that the gable was made of wood
without a major stone foundation, as is
common for turf churches in Iceland (e.g.
Stefánsson 1997, 28 and Fig. 3). A number
of regularly spaced, positive anomalies in
the interior of the church may be interpret-
ed as column bases.
The apse is marked by a strong anom-
aly, which makes it diíficult to identify the
exact size and shape of the outer wall. The
large anomaly may be caused by a stone-
paved ftoor or heavy foundation. The apse
is at least 4.5 m wide and 3.5 m long and
appears to be semi-circular, which again is
unusual for Icelandic churches.
Results from the dómhringur
The resistivity survey and the surface
model provide a clear representation of the
outline and structure of the dómhringur
(Figs. 7 and 8), but the interpretation of the
structure 's function is problematic. The in-
terior of the dómhringur and the inner sides
of the banks produce significantly lower
and more homogenous resistance com-
pared to the surrounding area, which may
be the result of water accumulation, as the
earthen bank retains surface water. How-
ever, the low resistance could also be due
to other soil formation or accumulation
processes that have taken place inside the
structure. The surface model shows that the
interior of the structure is 20-30 cm higher
than the surrounding area.