Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 28

Joris Coolen And Natascha Mehler
that could possibly be interpreted as booth
remains, although only with great uncer-
tainty. One is located approximately 20 m
west of the dómhringur, on the other side of
the hedge. The anomaly consists of an oval
area of slightly higher resistance measuring
approximately 10x5 m. The field appears to
have been levelled, and there are no visible
traces of any structure on the surface. Jóns-
son marked a levelled area to the west of
the dómhringur and two tentative booths
connected by a field boundary wall to the
north on his sketch map, but it is not pos-
sible to re-locate these structures more pre-
cisely (see Fig. 3).
The second anomaly that could be in-
terpreted as possible booth remains is
located at the bottom of the slope east of
the farm. Jónsson had marked a series of
booths along the slope (see Fig. 3). Indeed,
Zoéga et al. (2006) identified several man-
made features in this area but interpreted
most of them as the remains of gardening
activities. A small grid was laid out over
one of the visible structures, which ap-
pears as a levelled patch surrounded by a
low bank on the surface. The structure is
only vaguely visible in the resistivity data.
The two long sides, which run parallel to
the slope, show a slightly higher resistance,
but the anomaly does not have a clear out-
line. Hence, it is not possible to determine,
based on the resistivity data, whether the
structure represents the remains of a ver-
nacular building or a vegetable garden.
Discussion
The surveys conducted in late summer
2012 detected a number of archaeologi-
cal features within the areas of the alleged
dómhringur and to the south of it. In the
following section, the features and their in-
terpretations shall be discussed.
The churches ofÞingeyrar
Despite the relatively recent abandonment
of the old cemetery in Þingeyrar, its ex-
tent as well as the location of the former
church have been subject to speculation.
Zoéga et al. (2006,23-24) assumed that the
remains of the previous church had been
largely destroyed during the construction
of a water reservoir. However, the results
of the survey show that one of the former
churches was located 35 m farther east
of the present water reservoir and is in
fact quite well preserved. The question is:
Which of the churches recorded in writ-
ten documents is visible in the resistiv-
ity data? Written sources mention several
church buildings (see Table 1), and there
may well be other buildings or building
phases that have not been handed down
in the records, especially for the period
between the first reported church and the
church built in 1619 - a time span of ap-
proximately 500 years. It is highly unlikely
that the first church, built in the early 12*
century, was continuously in use until the
early 17* century without being altered or
renewed.
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