Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 12

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THE BURIAL SITE OF VIÐ KIRKJUGARÐ
Fig. 13. Grave K5B. Photo: N. Hartmann 1989.
The body seems to have belonged to a young
person, buried on his or her right side with
the knees raised. No grave-goods were found
in connection with the body, whose sex is not
as yet determineđ.
Grave J6G
Grave J6G consisted of a 1,5 meter long and
ca. 40 cms wide trough-shaped pit contain-
ing in it’s west end the remains of a decom-
posed skull and a set of teeth. On the basis
of the size of the grave and of the teeth, the
body is interpreted as having belonged to a
child. Several factors indicated that the body
had been interred on his or her left side.
Again no grave-goods were found.
Evaluation
The general impression gained from the ap-
pearance of the excavated as well as the
recorded but as yet uninvestigated graves, is
one of an organized, well-regulated burial
site consisting of a series of burials placed
end to end in a number of more or less
parallel rows. All of the burials are aligned
east-west and all seven of the uncovered
skeletons lay with their skulls pointing west.
Besides Grave J6B and K5A, all of the
graves showed signs of various degrees of
disturbance, in all probability due to a later
cultivation of the area. It seems likely that
stone formed part of the construction of all
of the graves, although many may have been
removed or disturbed in the following centu-
ries. Likewise the presence of stones in the
layers above and surrounding graves K5D
and J6G indicates that stones also formed
part of their original layout and construc-
tion.
Stratification shows that the average depth