Caves of Hella: Visual and Environmental Clues for the Early Medieval Christian Settlement in Southern Iceland

This thesis explores the early medieval Christian settlement in Iceland through an interdisciplinary approach that combines Art History and Earth Science. The primary focus of the thesis is the artificial caves in Hella, Iceland. By examining literature, regional climate changes, and visual materials, the thesis argues that the construction of these caves is linked to early medieval Insular peregrini—Christian hermits who pursued life-long self-exile in foreign lands.
The late Holocene regional climate was reconstructed by analyzing the changes of the oxygen isotopes in the foraminifera Neogloboquadrina pachyderma extracted from an ocean sediment core near Iceland's south coast. An onsite survey was undertaken to examine the local landscape of Hella and the artificial caves, with specific attention given to the cave structures and cross carvings. These features were then compared with those observed in Insular caves and ecclesiastical architecture. Chapter 2 of this thesis focuses on Earth Science, Chapter 3 has contents for both subjects, and Chapter 4 is about Art History.
Medieval sources from Iceland and Britain suggest an Insular interest in exploring the North Atlantic, potentially indicating a pre-Viking Christian discovery of Iceland. The reconstructed climate data reveals a general temperature decline since the Roman Ages Warm Period (~250 BC) and a significant drop during the Little Ice Age (~ 1300 CE). Notably, the early medieval cooling phase known as the Dark Age Cold Period (400 CE - 900 CE) and the subsequent Medieval Warm Period (950 - 1250 CE) are not observed in local environmental changes, suggesting that early medieval Iceland may have been more habitable than during the Viking’s Age.
Comparison between the Hella caves and Insular ecclesiastical architectures indicates that Hella caves have a stronger connection to Insular caves with cross carvings than to ecclesiastical churches. The investigation into the cross motifs shed light on suggests that the caves might have been made by the Columban peregrini, particularly those from southeast Scotland.
This thesis serves as a starter for a potentially long-term project on artificial caves in southern Iceland and aims to contribute to the study of Iceland’s early medieval social and climatic history.