MessageToEagle.com – Were Irish monks present in Iceland before the time of the Viking settlements? Were they responsible for ancient cross sculptures in Iceland’s caves?
Archaeologist Kristján Ahronson has concluded that Kverkarhellir, a manmade cave between waterfall Seljalandsfoss and farm Seljaland in South Iceland, was partly created around 800 AD, before the settlement of Iceland, which, according to sources, began in 874.
Ahronson presented the results of his analysis of volcanic ash layers from around the cave, among other findings, covered in his book “Into the Ocean”, at the University of Iceland.
“We are about to identify a large dump of material that looks like waste material from construction and dates to around 800 or so,” Ahronson explained.
“Kverkahellir, along with Seljalandshellir, is remarkable as it is part of a number of cave sites in southern Iceland, manngerðir hellar [‘manmade caves’], that are marked by cross sculpture.”
“There is something very unique … about the material that we found in these cave sites in southern Iceland but yet there are clear arguments that can be made for some connection to the west highlands in Ireland and Scotland, and Britain and Ireland more generally,” he added.
For now, researchers are uncertain. Even though place names indicate their presence, archaeological evidence is lacking.
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According to certain written sources, there were Irish monks called Papar living in Iceland when the Viking settlers first arrived in the 9th century, but that they then went away.
However, some other evidence regarding the monks’ presence is missing.
One of the oldest sources for the existence of Papar in Iceland comes from the historical work ‘Íslendingabók (‘Book of the Icelanders’), written by Ari fróði Þorgilsson some time in the years 1122-1133.
When Ari was writing, something like 250 years had passed from the time when Scandinavian colonists started to settle Iceland (according to the traditional, though not necessarily entirely unproblematical, chronology), and his testimony is thus open to doubt and question.
Icelandic written sources cannot, therefore, be taken as proof positive of the existence of Papar in Iceland.
Several attempts have been made to find remains that might be traceable to the Papar’s time in Iceland. The archaeologist, for example, investigated the sites of ancient dwellings on Papey Island in the east of Iceland, but found nothing that pointed to Papar having once lived there.
Further research of the ancient caves is needed to shed light on Iceland’s ancient history.
MessageToEagle.com