Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1991, Page 25

PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT . .
29
prelimiary conclusion that he has reached
as far back as to 900, or perhaps some
years before the turn of the century.39
The »ærgi« (shielings) excavated by Dit-
lev Mahler at Eiðisvatn have been dated to
traditional Viking Age and early Middle
Ages.40
Knud Krogh’s excavation of the six
churches of Sandur relates logically to
Christian times, and can hardly contribute
to the problem: the first settlement in the
Faroe Islands, as churches are Christian
institutions.41
So, the archaeologists can, at most, go
back to about 900 as to the earliest settle-
ment. They are not able to fill the gap
back to Dicuil. Consequently, to them
what I have called the »Irish Question«
has not yet gained any importance.
The Botanist(s)
The peaceful two-fronted academic war
between historians and archaeologists was
disturhed some years ago when a third
intruder entered the field: The natural
scientist, embodied in the botanist. This
represents the necessary interaction be-
tween discipiines formerly entirely separ-
ated, but now interdisciplinarily depen-
dent.
During the 1970's the Faroese botanist
Jóhannes Jóhansen carried out his pio-
neering research in pollen-analyses in the
Faroe Islands. In brief his main thesis was
that at about 600-650 A.D. oats had been
cultivated. As corn-plants cannot grow
wild (in other words are cultivated plants)
in the islands, this presuppose the exist-
ence of human beings. For him it was nat-
ural to refer to Dicuil’s account, according
to which Irish anchorites might have been
in the islands as early as about 700.42 Fifty
or one hundred years do not spoil any ear-
ly medieval chronology.
In reality this was a revolutionary the-
ory, disturbing even the old gap between
history and archaeology: the vacuum of
one hundred, or perhaps two hundred,
years.
Dr Jóhannes Jóhansen’s dissertation
made the scepticism of archaeologists.
Also the presumption — in accordance
with the Sverri Dahl and P. V. Glob intui-
tive tradition - that the fields on Mykines
might be relics of an Irish pre-Viking sett-
lement were met with scientific resistance
among archaeologists as they had found no
evidence that confirmed the »methology«
of any Irish inhabilation.43
But in this context it must be interesting
that Dr Jóhansen in his research in Shet-
land was able to unite the results of his
own studies in vegetational history with
accepted archaeological and historical
facts.44
Still more »alarming« is an article by Dr
Jóhansen in the Faroese scientific journal,
»Fróðskaparrit« in asserting that his de-
monstration of the presence of the plant
Plantago lanceolata in the Faroe Islands as
early as about 2300 B.C., according to a
generally accepted theory, not only indi-
cates, but rather makes likely the inhabit-
ation of human beings.45
It is important to note that Dr Jóhansen
is always wary to give historical explana-
tions. He sticks to his own subject, and his
hints to history and archaeology are only
allusions to the origin of these early pre-
Vikings settlers.46
Having stated an »Irish« settlement ear-
ly in the 7th century, he finds some kind