Keldudalur in Skagafjörður

At Keldudalur, four studies have been carried out since 2002. These have revealed a heathen (pre-Christian) burial ground, a Viking-Age longhouse and cattleshed, an early Christian graveyard, and part of the farmhouse site to which it belonged. Does Keldudalur date back to the settlement of Iceland?

At Keldudalur, remnants of a 10th-century longhouse and a cluster of barrows (burial mounds) from pre-Christian times have been found.
The place is not mentioned in written documents until 1295, however. An early Christian churchyard was also discovered. Bones appear to have been moved from the heathen to the Christian burial ground after the adoption of Christianity around 1000 AD.

Churchyard of the first half of the 11th century.

Much of the churchyard was beneath a layer of tephra (volcanic ash) from an eruption of 1104. In some places this had been cleared away. The entire area was blanketed in a thick tephra layer deposited in 1300. The churchyard is circular, enclosed by a wall of stacked turf.
The churchyard was in use for 100-150 years, from the first half of the 11th century. Fifty-two well-preserved graves were uncovered.
Women were buried to the north of the church, men to the south. The vast majority of the bodies were buried in coffins. The bodies were prepared for burial in the same way as in early Christianity in neighbouring countries, and the positioning of the graves was the same. Children, including infants, were among those buried. The graveyard was probably a private one belonging to the farmstead.
Analysis of the bones revealed evidence of diseases, and of diet.