Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Qupperneq 30

Joris Coolen And Natascha Mehler
(Kristjánsdóttir 2004, 45-52) or Hofstaðir
(6x3.4 m) (Gestsdóttir 2003, 26), but there
are churches, such as Gásir (three phases,
from 9.7x4.5 m to 15.4x5.0 m - Vésteins-
son 2009, 166) and Reykholt (Guðrún
Sveinbjarnardóttir pers. Comm.), that
have comparable lengths. Examples with
comparable dimensions are also found in
Scandinavia, such as the stave churches of
Gol (approximately 8.1x6.3 m) or Lomen
(6.6x5.4 m), both in Norway (Ahrens
1981, 614 and 619). If this interpretation
of the anomalies inside the dómhringur is
correct, the churches of Þingeyrar would
have changed location more than once,
and one could then contemplate wheth-
er this church building is the oldest one
and whether it is connected to the former
monastery complex. The dimensions of
the enclosure surrounding this anomaly,
the alleged dómhringur, correspond well
with those of enclosures of other medieval
churches such as the one at Gásir (c. 25 m)
(Vésteinsson 2009,160).
The monastery ofÞingeyrar
The resistivity data of the former graveyard
and the solid church building do not con-
tain any evidence of the monastery, but just
south of the dómhringur, subtle anomalies
that may well be archaeological features
were detected (see Figs. 5, 6 and 8). These
remains could be stone walls, or stones re-
inforcing turf walls, running in two paral-
lel and straight lines. An excavation would
clarify whether these walls could be the
remains of the former monastery complex,
parts of the old farm or even remains of
structures related to the former assembly
site.
The assembly site
There is little reason to doubt that Þingeyrar
was the site of the Húnavatnsþing. The
source value and reliability of Heiðarvíga
saga may not be strong, but the place name
and Jónsson’s (1895, 8-9) observations of
structures similar to other Icelandic as-
sembly sites are very strong indications.
The place name Þingeyrar derives from
ON þing, assembly, and eyrr, flat Iand that
separates water, or spit (modern Icelandic
sing. eyri, plur. eyrar).s Recent research on
Viking and early medieval assembly sites
in Northern Europe has shown that such
strips of land separating water were often
chosen as locations for meetings. In Shet-
land, for example, three, possibly four of
the seven regional assembly sites are sug-
gested to have been located on such land
strips (Sanmark 2013,100-102).5 6
Jóns saga Hólabyskups indicates that the
assembly site was in use before the church
5 Ordbog over det norrone prosasprog, s.v. eyrr. On the modern Icelandic see Böðvarsson 1985, s.v. eyri.
6 In these cases, the Shetland place name attributes contain the element ON -eið (Sanmark 2013, 100; on -eið
see Waugh 2010). The Shetland term ayre is comparable to the Icelandic term eyri.
28