English below

Kuml við bakka Þórisár í Skriðdal

Árið 1995 fór fram uppgröftur á kumli sem blásið hafði upp að hluta við bakka Þórisár í Skriðdal. Vegfarendur höfðu orðið varir við tvo spjótsodda ofan jarðar við göngustíg nærri ánni. Í ljós kom þegar betur var að gáð að kuml, þ.e. gröf úr heiðnum sið, var þar að blása upp en lítill gróður var á því svæði sem það fannst. Kumlið var grafið upp í heild sinni en í því fundust bein karlmanns og hests.

Karlmaðurinn hafði verið á fertugsaldri þegar hann lést en hesturinn var ungur, hugsanlega aðeins trippi. Haugféð er með því ríkulegra sem þekkist hér á landi, einkum þá vegna fjölbreytni í samsetningu þess. Í gröfinni var sverð, skjöldur með skjaldarbólu, öxi, tvö spjót, tvö sverðbrýni, perlur, sylgja, sproti, hringprjónn, tveir steinar úr agati, klébergsgrýta, hringur úr tini, leðurpyngja með eldtinnu, fjórum metum og enskri silfurmynt. Hesturinn var í fullum reiðtygjum.

Sýni voru tekin úr beinagrind hestsins til kolefnisaldursgreininga og gaf hún til kynna að gröfin væri frá síðari hluta 10. aldar og er sú niðurstaða í samræmi við aldur myntarinnar, sem slegin var í tíð Edwigs konungs á tímabilinu 955-957.

• Teikning

The Pagan Grave by the river Þórisá in Skriðdalur Valley, East Iceland

In the autumn of 1995, a pagan grave was discovered by locals during a hiking tour along the banks of Þórisár river in Skriðdalur valley. They had noticed two spearheads sticking out of the ground and contacted Steinunn, who by then was working as the director of East Iceland Heritage Museum. Upon a closer look, the spearheads appeared to belong to a grave of a Viking. The grave mound was excavated in its entirety, but the bones of a middle-aged male and young horse were found in it, besides wide assortment of grave good. The grave good is one of the richest known to date in Iceland, especially because of the variety in its composition.

The man had been in his 40s when he died, but the horse was only a youngster, most likely not to use for riding. The horse was, nevertheless, buried in full bridle. In the grave, there was a sword, a wooden shield with an iron boss, an axe, a knife, two spears, two sharpeners for sharpening swords, several beads, a buckle and a cloak pin both of bronze, two stones of agate, a bowl of soapstone, a ring of ten, and a leather purse that contained a flintstone, four weights and two English silver coins.

Samples were taken from the horse’s skeleton for carbon dating, and it showed that the burial took place during the second half of the 10th century. This result is in accordance with the age of one of the two coins, which was minted in the time of King Eadwig who reign during the period 955–959.

English below

Gellishóll á Barðaströnd

Sumarið 1999 fór fram rannsókn á meintum grafhaug í landi Breiðalækjar á Barðaströnd. Haugurinn er í daglegu tali nefndur Gellishóll og fylgir honum sú þjóðsaga að í honum sé heygður Gellir nokkur sem kemur fyrir í Króka-Refssögu. Átti hann að vera heygður þar í skipi sínu en lögun haugsins er einmitt skipslaga.

Tilgangur rannsóknarinnar var að kanna hvort haugurinn geymdi gröf og ef svo væri ekki, var ætlunin að athuga hvort hann væri manngerður og þá af hvaða ástæðu. Grunur lék á að tenging haugsins við Gelli væri tilkomin á 18. eða 19. öld þegar algengt varð að tengja áberandi hauga og hóla við nafntogaða aðila úr Íslendingasögunum. Ákveðið var að skoða hauginn einungis með könnunarskurði til þess að koma í veg fyrir óþarfa rask á svo áberandi kennileiti í náttúrunni sem þessu.

Niðurstöður voru þær helstar að enga gröf er að finna í haugnum en samt er hann manngerður, því hann er að hluta til hlaðinn upp úr torfi. Erfitt er að tímasetja gerð hans nákvæmlega því ekkert fannst sem hægt var að nota til aldursgreininga. Söguleg gjóskulög eru engin á þessu svæði landsins og engar lífrænar leifar komu fram við uppgröftinn.

Um hlutverk haugsins er einnig erfitt að fullyrða en svo virðist helst sem hann hafi verið siglingamerki fyrir þá sem lentu knörrum sínum allt fram á 14. öld við Hagabótina en hún er þarna skammt undan. Siglingamerkið hefur síðan verið flutt annað þegar skip urðu djúpristari en knerrirnir, enda má víða sjá leifar siglingamerkja nærri Hagabótinni og eru þau líklega frá ýmsum tímum.

• Skýrsla 1999

The Grave of Gellir in Barðaströnd

In the summer of 1999, an investigation was carried out on a suspected burial mound in the fields of Breiðalækur on Barðaströnd, West-Iceland. The mound was commonly referred to as Gellishóll, based on the legend of Gellir, who appears in Króka-Refs Saga, but he was claimed to have been buried in it. Gellir was supposed to be buried there in his ship, but the shape of the mound is ship-shaped.

The purpose of the investigation was to find out if the mound contained a grave and if not, the intention was to check if it was man-made and for what reason. It was suspected that the connection of the mound to Gelli was made in the 18th or 19th century, when it was common to associate supposed burial mounds with famous persons in the Icelandic Sagas. It was decided to examine the mound only through a test pit excavation in order to prevent unnecessary disturbance of such a prominent natural landmark as Gellishóll is.

The main results were that no grave can be found in the mound, but it is still man-made, because it is partially built with turf. However, it is difficult to date it precisely, because nothing was found that could be used for age analysis. There are no historical tephra layers in this area of ​​the country, and no organic remains were found during the excavation.

The mound seems thus to have served as a navigational marker for those who landed their ships at Hagabót up until the 14th century when the knors (isl. knerrir) were replaced by new ones when ships became more trimmed than the knors. Remains of later navigation marks can at least be seen in many other places near the Hagabót, and they are probably from later times.