those interred had been buried with an iron knife which had thin silver threads entwined
around the handle; one of these, a young man, also had a pouch or a purse – possibly a
woven pouch containing a leather purse. In this pouch were seven plain lead weights –
three pairs, and each pair contained a circular and a rectangular weight. Also a strap-end
was found in the grave, ornamented with an animal head; further a bronze fragment was
found, which was decorated with an interlaced motif of Irish origin, and some small
silver fragments.
In one of the graves was found a clipped Cufic coin, the first and only coin of this type
found in the islands so far. This has been identified as a late ninth-century imitation
of an Abbasid-style dirham, which may be suggestive for dating the burial to the mid-
tenth century (Blackburn 2005 ; Graham-Campbell 2005 ).
We must suppose that around ad 1000 , at the time when it is commonly supposed
that the Faroes were converting to Christianity, there existed a settlement here, impor-
tant enough to warrant the erection of a church. The activity on the site continued for a
period, perhaps until the early thirteenth century, after which the site was abandoned.
Only the church and the churchyard remained.
JUNKARINSFLØTTUR, SANDUR AND THE
VIKING ECONOMYA phosphate survey in 1989 in Junkarinsfløttur, Sandur, to the north of the church
site, which has been cultivated for centuries, indicated a large settlement area. Erosion of
the cliff just below these fields in 2000 made 2 m deep cultural layers visible, and
subsequent archaeological investigations have now revealed an extensive settlement in
that area of which we hitherto had no knowledge (Arge 2001 ) (Figure 42. 1. 3 ). The
preliminary zooarchaeological analysis of the remains from Junkarinsfløttur – the first of
its kind in the Faroes – presents a diverse range of economic practices employed by
the Norse settlers at a key time and geographical position in their expansion across
the North Atlantic. Their economic strategy appears to have relied heavily upon the
exploitation of a broad spectrum of the local wild resources to supplement a mixed
agricultural base of animal husbandry and cereal cultivation.
Domestic mammals recovered included sheep, cows and pigs with single bones of
goat and dog. Significant numbers of pig bones were recovered throughout the site
sequence, indicating sustained pig keeping up to and beyond the thirteenth century, a
situation unique compared to Iceland and Greenland. Birds comprised a relatively large
proportion of the archaeofauna. The Faroese at Junkarinsfløttur remained dependent
upon bird resources, especially puffins, far longer and to a greater degree than any of
the other Viking Age settlers of the North Atlantic islands. A wide range of marine
resources were also recovered, suggesting the Norse settlers of the Faroes were heavily
reliant on natural resources to sustain their economy.
The procurement of wood would have been a major consideration for the Norse in the
Faroes. The islands never sustained extensive woodland, and heather and juniper were
the only wood resource available on Sandoy at the landnám, though fragments of various
coniferous timber species would have arrived as driftwood picked up from the shore. In
the archaeological assemblage in Sandur wood charcoal was very rare and consisted of
locally derived roundwood, coniferous driftwood and imported oak. Peat and turf were
the main fuel sources in the treeless landscape. A hulled six-row barley monoculture was
–– Símun V. Arge––