Hylestad stavkirke gjenoppstår – historier, georadar og rekonstruksjon

Abstract

Hylestad Stave Church Resurrected - Stories, GPR, and Reconstruction This article examines Hylestad Stave Church in Setesdal, Agder. The church is considered an abandoned medieval church site and is no longer visible on the surface today. The Hylestad Portal, the most famous of medieval stave church portals in Norway, comes from this site. Medieval church sites are complex archaeological and historical locations, often with roots in pre-Christian practices. Many of these abandoned church sites lack precise location information and risk damage from modern interventions. This is also the case at Hylestad. There is no comprehensive review of the church site's history, and the source material is fragmented and incomplete. A GPR survey conducted in 2021 has renewed interest in the site for further research, along with older source materials. This article explores how the new geophysical surveys contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the existing archaeological and written sources from the church site, and how they enhance the understanding of the stave church as an important archaeological and historical source.

Keywords

• Stavkirke
• Hylestad