Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 4

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THE BURIAL SITE OF VIÐ KIRKJUGARÐ .
Fig. 3. From the excavations Yviri í Trøð at Tjørnuvík. Photo: S. Dahl 1959.
als - a possibility that had been considered
the previous year.
This exiting re-interpretation was soon
confirmed by the excavation of one of the
most likely features - K5A. Consequently,
the excavation area was extended northwards
up to the old churchdyke, in order to provide
us with more room to work in as well as al-
!ow us to form an impression of the extent of
the burials. As a number of suspected graves
were recorded in the immediate vicinity of
the dyke, a ca. 10 meter long section was re-
moved. This revealed the presence of an
older structure, in all probability an older
dyke, that apparently encloses an area that
today lies beneath the old churchyard. For
obvious reasons the extent and function of
this older dyke has not been investigated.
Even so the discovery raises a number of
questions. First of all it is tempting to see a
link between the dyke and the above
described stone setting excavated in 1972,
hitherto interpreted as the paved floor of a
Viking Age longhouse (Krogh 1975:43).
Could the longhouse be another type of
building? And do we here really have the re-
mains of a building, or do the stone flags
form part of another feature altogether? The
paving was of such a limited size, that it was
then not considered advisable to continue in-