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Project Details: Pagan burials


Project Description

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Sub Projects
Pagan burials
Title: Pagan burials
Description Although many pagan graves have been found in Iceland, organised search for such sites has hitherto not been conducted and most have been found by coincidence. In some cases bones and artefacts have been picked up without the site being investigated by an archaeologist. This project aims to establish a methodology to locate pagan graves.
Country Iceland
Project Start Year 2003
Project End Year Ongoing

Project Contact

Contact: Fornleifastofnun Íslands
Address Bárugata 3, 101 Reykjavík, ICELAND
Postcode 101
Telephone 00354-5511033
Website http://www.instarch.is
Email fsi@instarch.is

Project Content

Kuml og samfélag. Framvinduskýrsla 2003
Recent research has shown that most pagan graves are found either away from the farm site, close to boundaries between farms or close to the farm. Often they lie close to old tracks. A few suspicious sites were excavated in 2003 to test this model. A pile of rocks in Bjarneyjar, Breiðafjörður, proved to be a cairn or the remains of a small hut and a mound in Ytri -Fagradalur in Skarðsströnd is most likley a natural formation. A site close to the Viking Age site Hrísheimar was excavated, and a grave-like oblong depression, with sides lined with stones, revealed. No human remains...
Kuml í Saltvík í Reykjahverfi, S-Þingeyjarsýslu
Two pagan burials were excavated close to the farm Saltvík in S-Þingeyjarsýsla in 2003 and 2004. Both had been located during survey in 2002, close to ruins that have been found to date to the Viking Age and close to an old horse track. Both had been heavily disturbed, most likely just before the deposition of the 1477 tephra. The eastern grave has most likely contained a human and a horse at the northern end - or at least some part of a horse. The western one was single. It cannot be ruled out that more graves, disturbed or even undisturbed, remain on site.
Kumlin hjá Litlu-Núpum í Aðaldal. Fornleifarannsókn 2004
Two pagan graves were excavated close to the farm ruins called Litlu-Núpar, S-Þingeyjarsýsla, in 2004. They were discovered where pagan graves had been found previously by accident in 1915. Grave 1 had been disturbed before the 1477 tephra was deposited. No finds were present but badly preserved bones of a human and perhaps a horse were present. Grave two, also disturbed between the 11th-13th centuries was also in bad shape. It turned out to be divided in two with only a thin wall of soil between. Only one human bone was present in the northern part and the southern one contained...
Fornleifarannsóknir í S-Þingeyjarsýslu 2007 - Samantekt um vettvangsrannsóknir á Þegjandadal, Aðaldal og Reykjadal
This report contains results of investigations carried out in coopperation with Hið þingeyska fornleifafélag in 2007. Excavation in Litlu-Núpar was continued. Previously pagan graves had been discovered and structures dated to the Middle Ages. The investigation focussed on the place where pagan graves had previously been found. A well preserved boatgrave was revealed, marked by the shape of the cut and several boatnails. The remains of at least two individuals were found in the grave which had been robbed. 2. Preliminary excavation was carried out in Þegjandadalur. A boundary...


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