Report from Iceland

Mediterranean altar stone excavated. PARABOW students get involved with archaeology in Iceland

The students were all given a special subject to work on. Stefano Paci's work concerns indentifcation of the wood species used as building material in the churches (during both phases) and the wood species used to make coffins. Greame Clarke is going to do research on the graves found at the graveyard in Thorarinsstadir. Graves with coffins seems to belong to the younger phase of the church and those without coffins seems to belong to the earlier phase of the church, maybe the pagan time before the church was built. Daniel Lindblad is going to write an essay about the connection between theory and the method used at the site. His work is based on our diaries that we kept during the excavation period. Anna Nyqvist is going to do research on the usage of charcoal in burial practices. In almost every grave at the site we found big amounts of charcoals. Douwtje von der Muelen, the conservator, is going to write a report about the preservation skills at the site. There will be lot of work and news to put on our PARABOW web page soon. We are now working on all the pictures and drawings, that were taken during the excavation, to be available on CD ROM.



News-item from Iceland Review, Monday, 26 July 1999

Archaeologists excavating at the Thorarinsstadir church site in Seydisfjordur, east Iceland, have unearthed some interesting new clues about the history of the early church in Iceland.

Last Thursday, a fragment of a Danish silver coin was found dating from the reign of Harda-Knutur (known as Harthacnut in English) in AD 1040 to 1045. As the Icelandic conversion to Christianity was only formally recognised in AD 1000, this makes the church at Thorarinsstadir a very early example. It appears to have burnt down in around the middle of the 11th century and been rebuilt subsequently.

On Friday an altar stone was found in the choir area, leading to more intriguing possibilities. Such stones were usually formally blessed by an abbot or bishop on behalf of the Pope. The stone appears to come from the eastern Mediterranean and the archaeologists believe it may link the church building at Thorarinsstadir with the activities of missionaries sent out by the Catholic Church authorities to Iceland.