Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 31

Surveying The Assembly Site And Churches Of Þingeyrar
and monastery were founded at Þingeyrar.
The patron saint of the first church at Þing-
eyrar was St Nicholas (see above), and Helgi
Þorláksson (2008, 169) has suggested that
St Nicholas could have been a saint also for
the assembly site, guaranteeing peace be-
fore and during the meetings. The location
of meeting places in the vicinity of churches
has been identified as a characteristic fea-
ture for many assembly sites in Northern
Europe (e.g., Brink 2007,63; Sanmark 2009;
0degaard 2013, 45), which also holds true
for Iceland (see maps in Whitmore 2013).
In Shetland, one of the main assemblies is
reported to have taken place inside a church
building (Coolen and Mehler 2014, 6). The
relationship and chronological sequences
between assembly and church is often dif-
ficult to assess, and interpretation depends
on the knowledge of which comes first.
Assembly sites could have been placed
near older churches because of the exist-
ence of good travel routes. On the other
hand, assemblies played an important role
during the Christianisation process. It has
been suggested that Christian belief was
spread during meetings, which resulted in
the founding of many churches (Andersen
1977, 191; 0degaard 2013, 45; Whitmore
2013, 337). The most prominent Icelandic
example is Þingvellir, where Christianity
was accepted during the main assembly in
the year 1000 (Jóhannesson 1974, 137). In-
deed, in the case of Þingeyrar, Bishop Jón
spoke to the people at the assembly about
building a church at Þingeyrar (see above).
Another example of a church built at an as-
sembly site is Hegranes in Northern Iceland.
Excavations inside the alleged dómhringur
at Hegranes have shown that the structure
is instead an enclosure of a medieval church
and churchyard (Gestsdóttir 2004, 47-48;
Zoéga and Sigurðarson 2010). An excava-
tion would help to clarify the nature of the
anomaly and the function of the alleged
dómhringur at Þingeyrar.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the present owners of
Þingeyrar, Ingimundur Sigfússon and Val-
gerður Valsdóttir, for their great hospitality
and permission to survey on their premises.
The project was directed by Natascha Me-
hler, and fieldwork was carried out by Joris
Coolen, Ronny Wefiling (all University of
Vienna) and Óskar Gísli Sveinbjarnarson
(Fornleifastofnun íslands), with help from
Adolf Friðriksson (Fornleifastofnun ís-
lands) and Alan Laycock. Furthermore, we
would like to thank Niels Pálmi Skovsgárd
Jónsson for the information he provided
about Þingeyrar as well as Mjöll Snæsdóttir
(Fornleifastofnun íslands), Orri Vésteins-
son and Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir (Háskóli
Islands), Alexandra Sanmark (University of
the Highlands and Islands) and Grégory
Cattaneo (Háskóli Íslands/Université Paris-
Sorbonne) for their valuable comments and
discussions.
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