Excavation in 2023
The Location
Excavation in 2022
In August 2022, excavation was continued on the ruins of the monastery at Þingeyrar, but this was the fourth summer that excavations took place there. Excavation in area E was continued where they had been left off from the year before. A larger portion of the fence around the graveyard was revealed but also a previously unknown turf wall that may originate from the time of the monastery. Area D was reopened and focus put on its southern part. In addition to the ruins of a 19th century structure, a number of graves were revealed in area D.
Previous Excavations
The archaeological excavations in 2021 took place in Þingeyrar in Húnaþing during the period 3–27 August 2021. Like the summer before, this phase of the project was funded by the RÍM Fund, which aimed to investigate the literary culture of the Icelandic Middle Ages. The project also received a financial contribution from the University of Iceland Research Fund and The Student Innovation Fund. It is known that extensive manuscript making took place in Þingeyraklaustur during its operation from 1133–1551 and it is even believed that many of the most significant Icelandic medieval manuscripts were made there. The archaeological excavation in the summer of 2021 focused thus, among other things, on examining the nature and scope of literary culture in Þingeyraklaustur. As before, however, the aim of the study was also to investigate any kind of remains and documents that could shed light on the daily life and operation of the monastery. The excavation took place in the same area as in the two previous seasons, in 2018 and 2020. It is heavily disturbed by recent burials, although some ruins from the monastic period were also detected, such as a part of the monastic church wall. A new area was opened west of the old area, after extensive measurements made in the field where the monastic ruins are located, to make sure that the new area would lie outside the old cemetery at Þingeyrar. The new excavation area is promising but it was only possible to clear the top layers of it before the end of the 2021 season.