Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 2014, Page 63

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Summary
Two Viking Age pendants from Iceland
A relatively small assemblage of decorative objects belonging to the Viking Age
has been preserved in Iceland, most of which were found in pagan graves. This
article deals with two additions to the assemblage found as a result of erosion at two
different inland sites. One is a coin pendant found at Bjarnastaðir in Borgarfjörður
in 1947, and kept safely by the finder until 2002, when handed to the author for
study. It consists of an Anglo-Saxon silver coin, minted during the reign of King
Æthelred II (978-1016), to which a f lat loop had been attached. It was found in
an area where tradition has it that an early church stood and could well have been
originally in a grave. Other pendants of a similar type are known, both in Iceland
and Scandinavia.
The other, a copper-alloy gilded pendant with a Jellinge style animal on one
side, was shown to the author in July 2003. The finder discovered it earlier that
same month at an eroded site, believed to be that of a farm at Reynifellsalda in
Rangárvallasýsla. It displays a motif which is well known in Scandinavia, dated
to the tenth century, and has parallels there as well as in Iceland. The variation in
the execution of this type of pendant indicates that they were produced in many
different places.
These pendants were found by chance by visitors to eroded sites known to
have been associated with human activity. Their identification is a reminder of
how closely related the material culture of that period in Iceland is to that in
Scandinavia at the time. Their subsequent preservation is, in turn, a reminder of
the importance of disseminating information to and maintaining good relations
with the wider public in an effort to preserve the national heritage.