The valley where a 900-year-old Viking pendant representing Thor’s hammer was recently found is set to become Iceland’s first collectively protected area to ensure the safety of other archaeological finds.
The Thjorsardalur valley, in the Arnessysla county of south-western Iceland, is set to become protected by the Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland in a project which will see different archaeological sites collectively protected for the first time in the country.
The tiny 900-year-old Thor’s hammer was recently found in the valley which is home to more than 200 Viking farmsteads.
The project would mean that any artefacts found in the area would receive automatic protection from the authorities.
Uggi Aevarsson from the Cultural Heritage Manager of Southern Iceland told Central European News (CEN): “With this protection of the whole valley the emphasis in Icelandic heritage management is shifting from the traditional protection of individual sites towards larger units.
“It embodies a different approach in protecting the heritage, it focuses on the cultural landscape. The landscape has always been the stage of humans, affected human behaviour but also vice versa, humans have put their mark on the land.”
A report from the Cultural Heritage Agency found the area contains “a unique collection of artefacts from the Middle Ages” which have not been touched and represent economic value through tourism.
The Viking farmsteads have become more visible over time through wind erosion of the layers of volcanic ash covering them.
The area includes a historically accurate reconstruction of one the Viking farmsteads called Thjodveldisbaerinn Stong. The original buildings are thought to have been covered by volcanic ash when the Hekla volcano erupted in 1104.
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Story By: Bartosz Staszewski, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
