The Northern Isles.

Graham-Campbell, James

OLWYN OWEN & CHRISTOPHER LOWE. Kebister: the four-thousand-year-old story of one Shetland township (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph 14). xxx+333 pages, 186 figures, 18 colour plates, 55 tables. 1999. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; 0-903903-14-8 hardback 39.50 [pounds sterling]+4.50 [pounds sterling] p&p.

BARBARA E. CRAWFORD & BEVERLEY BALLIN SMITH. The Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland: the history and excavation of a royal Norwegian farm (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph 15). xxiv+269 pages, 150 figures, 21 colour plates, 22 tables. 1999. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland & Norske Videnskaps-Akademi; 0-903903-15-6 hardback 38 [pounds sterling]+4.50 [pounds sterling] p&p.

OLWYN OWEN & MAGNAR DALLAND. Scar: a Viking boat burial on Sanday, Orkney. xii+236 pages, 117 b&w & colour figures, 8 tables. 1999. East Linton: Tuckwell; 1-86232-080-2 paperback 20 [pounds sterling].

These three volumes report on excavations carried out in the Northern Isles, consisting of two settlement sites, both in Shetland, and of a Viking age boat burial on the Orkney island of Sanday. In addition to their particular contribution to our knowledge of the past 4000 years of Scottish archaeology, they present interesting contrasts in their approaches both to excavation (one research and two rescue sites) and to publication (two substantial monographs, and one glossy book).

The weightiest of these three is that by Olwyn Owen & Christopher Lowe on the Shetland township of Kebister, not surprisingly given that it has the longest story to tell. The Kebister project was rescue archaeology of the mid 1980s, in part `little more than salvage', with the excavation areas being `dictated by the direction and timetable of the modern development [an oil rig supply base], rather than as a systematic archaeological response to a complex site' (p. xi). The latter aspect was, however, to some extent mitigated through undertaking a full series of scientific investigations, together with a final season of topographical and environmental survey of the hillside.

Evidence for a human presence at Kebister during the Neolithic is confined to the palynological record, but from the Bronze Age (c. 1800-500 BC) there are burnt mounds, a rare timber structure and the facade of a possible heel-shaped building, as well as three cremation burials. Kebister was intensively farmed during the Iron Age, with a nucleated settlement that, unusually for this region, lacked a broch, or any other type of fortification. This period of activity seems to have come to an end by about cal AD 400 (incidentally, the volume contains a valuable appendix by Patrick Ashmore providing details of all `Radiocarbon dates for archaeological sites in Shetland'). There is an important coarse pottery sequence, with the added advantage of its radiocarbon dating, but in general `the Kebister artefact assemblage is notable more for quantity than quality' (p. 282).

The one completely unexpected aspect of Kebister's archaeological sequence dates from considerably later, to the beginning of the 16th century, when what is interpreted as a `teind barn' (a warehouse for the collection of rents paid in commodities) was erected, most probably by the then archdeacon of Shetland who placed a remarkable armorial stone above its door. This barn fell into disuse, probably by the middle of the same century, with a corn-drying kiln being inserted later into its remains. The post-medieval township (by now historically documented) was not itself abandoned until the 19th century, even though the site only became reachable by road with the development of the oil rig supply base in 1985.

But what happened at Kebister during the medieval period (c. AD 500-1500)? The place-name `Kebister' is Norse in origin, so where then is the Norse farm? It remained unlocated, thus prompting an interesting discussion of the problems presented by the study of the settlement archaeology of this period in Shetland. There are, however, late Norse (c. 1100-1400) artefacts, such as steatite vessels and a couple of characteristic bake plates made from stone quarried in Norway, as well as traces of buildings and associated debris, dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. It is evidence for an early Norse, or Viking period, farm (c. 800-1100) that is missing, although the -bister element indicates that this was a secondary farm carved out of an older parent farm.

On the other hand, part of this late Iron Age to late Norse hiatus encompasses what would appear to have been a short-lived ecclesiastical site because of two coffin graves, radiocarbon dated to about the 10th century, together with a putative chapel. There is also a portable cross-incised slab that Ross Trench-Jellicoe dates to the immediately pre-Norse period. How all this contributes exactly to the debate about the continuity of pre-Norse Christianity in Shetland, and/or the date of the Norse conversion, is unfortunately unclear because of the limited extent of the archaeological evidence for the use of Kebister during this period. What is clear, however, is that Kebister was never to develop into a major ecclesiastical site.

The poor preservational quality of the Kebister soils meant that very little bone, and almost no shell, survived. However, the late Camilla Dickson was able to produce a detailed account of 112 taxa of flowering plants and mosses from more than 200 contexts, `over a longer span of time than has previously been possible for the Shetland Isles' (p. 229). There is a great deal of interest in her report, including discussion of roofing turves, wood use (native timber; North American and other driftwood; and probable Norwegian softwood, in the post-medieval period), as well as of an exceptional find of ancient goat droppings.

It has been estimated that there were about 700 townships in Shetland in the 11th century AD, with few indications that there were large manorial farms, with the obvious exception of one on the island of Papa Stour, mentioned in a document of 1299 as a royal Norwegian farm. It was there, in a building known as a stofa, that Ragnhild Simunsdattir accused Lord Thorvald Thoresson of financial impropriety in rent collection. This episode in the history of Shetland is one that has long been included amongst Barbara Crawford's historical studies and it was the inspiration for her six seasons of research excavation carried out there, at the Biggings, between 1977 and 1979, in 1982 and 1987, with a final season having taken place in 1990, when she was joined by Beverley Ballin Smith on whom fell the task of pulling the archaeological data together for the final report.

The earliest activity at the east end of the main site is essentially undated and the structural sequence begins with some vestiges of a building characterized as being `sunken' (p.212-13). Yet its initial description states only that the subsoil had been `pushed back' to the sides (p. 73) so as to create low banks (only 0.3-0.4m high), on which horizontal timbers might be laid to support wall planking. It is therefore slightly worrying that, in the subsequent discussion, it is described as having been `dug down' (p. 208)which leads to it being compared to Norwegian and Icelandic `pit-houses'. It had a central fire-pit that was replaced by a wall-hearth, but the absolute dating of the structure is uncertain. The term dyngja is introduced to label it, having been selected for this purpose from `later saga sources' (p. 213), where it is believed to have been applied to both bath-houses and weaving-rooms.

The uncertainty surrounding the exact nature of what might perhaps have been better referred to simply as `Structure 1' may perhaps be considered to make the introduction of dyngja to the archaeological terminology for Scandinavian Scotland somewhat premature. The construction of the successor building, the actual stofa, apparently involved the levelling of its predecessor, although one of its foundation `banks' was reutilized as an internal bench, matched by another on the opposite side of the room. It was a timber structure, but there was an outer, protective, stone wall extending the length of one long side. One gable-end had a sill of coursed stone, but the other was missing. Internally, there was a corner hearth--and, attached externally, there was a stave-built privy. In some ways, however, the most notable feature of this building was its wooden floor, mostly of pine, but with a little oak (although it is considered that some at least of the timbers were re-used). In its wooden construction, general size and internal features, this building is well paralleled by contemporary structures in Norway to which the term stofa is applied, meaning something more than just a `living-room'--more like the `best' room of a farm-house complex.

This building-phase (Phase 3) is attributed to the 13th/14th centuries because of imported ceramics from the east end, although there were probable late 16th-century sherds found on the floor itself. These presumably derived from the secondary use of this `Structure 2', when some pits were dug within it, and when it may no longer have been fully roofed; it is thought that it was partly destroyed by fire in the early 1600s. In Phase 5 a stone structure was erected on the same alignment as Structures 1 and 2, but this was badly disturbed by later building activity. It was probably a dwelling-house, like its successor (built in the 1860s) which was finally abandoned in the 1930s.

The other end of the main site is separately recorded, but here again the primary structures are no more than `remnant', belonging to a date range from AD 1100 to the early/mid-1200s. They are identified as a (Phase 2) skali or domestic hall, with an accompanying eldhus or cookhouse, but these interpretations depend largely on their better preserved (Phase 3) replacements, dated with the stofa to the 13th/14th centuries. They were subsequently abandoned, although a new dwelling-house, with a wooden floor, was built nearby c. 1400, subsequently to be burnt down in the 17th century. A realigned dwelling-house was constructed in Phase 5, which was to be levelled in the 19th century.

Much that is most fascinating about the Biggings concerns the finds, given that there was excellent organic preservation, so these include textiles, as well as such as birch-bark rolls (most probably for use as a roofing material, beneath turf, as in Scandinavia), and a rope-maker's wooden `top'. It is of course the great use of timber, mostly Scots pine, for building in treeless Shetland (and thus probably imported from Norway), that is a particularly striking feature at the Biggings, as is properly highlighted by Crawford. It will, however, be interesting to see just how this compares with the late 11th/mid 12th-century building at Peel Castle, Isle of Man, which likewise had a timber-framed construction, on wooden sill beams, with a suspended timber floor (Freke 1995: 32), when this finally reaches publication this year.

But is the excavated building at the Biggings actually the ducal stofa of the 1299 document? Best to let Crawford herself answer this question for us. In an address to Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, in 1997, she concluded: `We cannot say that it is positively proven that this is the visible material evidence of the historical fact. Archaeology does not work like that ...' (Crawford 2001: 243). Indeed so, and we need to bear in mind the observation by Val Turner, Shetland Archaeologist, that `archaeological evidence for another strong contender has [since] been identified' (Turner 2001: 414). One can understand, of course, why Crawford chose to begin the volume with her historical case, but such remains an `unconventional' approach for an excavation report (Turner 2001: 414). Olwyn Owen has addressed just this crux, commenting: 'Crawford makes a very reasonable case, but the pedants (realists?) amongst us may continue to resist the equation of the only excavated site of the right period on the island with the extraordinary scene played out in Shetland's oldest surviving document' (Owen 2000: 394).

Overall, for Crawford to have succeeded in seeing this project through from her initial inspiration, by means of immense dedication (for fund-raising as well as in the field), to her final commitment to full publication has been a remarkable achievement. With the Biggings and Kebister now both available in print, in a pair of handsome volumes, those who are completing their own reports on Shetland excavations--or who are active in the field--have major modern studies to which they can turn for assistance in the interpretation of their own sites. Everyone else is the richer for their existence, except perhaps the student of the Viking period proper! But fortunately, for Viking specialist and amateur alike, there is Orkney and the Scar boat burial to turn to for much fascinating new knowledge.

The glossy book on Scar sets out not just to publish this pagan Norse triple burial, but to tell the dramatic story of how it was (mostly) rescued from total erosion by Atlantic storms--and that of its subsequent study--at the same time as presenting a total factual account of all aspects of the material, including detailed specialist reports, such as that describing the contents of the faeces left by the otters who sometime established a `holt' within the burial. There are wide-ranging studies of the artefact types, a review of how the burial falls within the context not only of pagan Norse burial in Orkney, but also of the whole of Britain and Ireland, all carefully researched, together with several colourful reconstructions to aid the imagination. If sometimes these various aspects do not sit entirely happily together, one is tempted to say: so what? What is done here is well done, but then there are three good stories for the telling. So maybe this excellent volume is not something for others necessarily to try and model their publications upon.

Apart from the story of the discovery and rescue of the boat burial, and that of the subsequent conservation and research, there is the Viking-period mystery behind it all. How come a high-status woman, possibly in her 70s, got to be buried in a boat on Sanday, together with a child aged about 10, and a man probably in his 30s?

The boat is estimated to have been c. 7.15 m in length and was Norwegian-built (on the basis of the mineral grains trapped within its caulking). The elderly woman wore a fine Norwegian equal-armed brooch and owned a splendid Norwegian whalebone plaque (an artefact of debatable use, but not necessarily of religious function as advocated here), together with a comb and a sickle, as well as weaving and sewing equipment. The man had apparently been well armed, even though some of his grave-goods had clearly been lost to the sea, but amongst the survivals were another comb, some scale weights and gaming pieces. Dating proved to be the final problem because a balance had to be struck between the artefact assemblage (bearing in mind the age of the woman, for even if she had been a first-generation settler there remains the possibility of an heirloom factor in her possessions). This is fully discussed by Owen, and then the variant radiocarbon dates for the three skeletons are reviewed by Dalland. Their joint conclusion states: `The radiocarbon dating evidence alone would seem to suggest that the most likely date for the grave is sometime between about AD 895 and 1030, and most probably after 960; while the most likely date for the grave on the basis of the artefactual assemblage is somewhat earlier, from the second half of the ninth or first few decades of the tenth century' (p. 164). In the end, they opt for the date bracket of c. 875-950, but for this reviewer the late 9th century still carries the greatest conviction, whatever the radiocarbon dates might indicate.

All in all, then, here is an excellent trio of excavation reports with much to commend them not only to those who will need them anyway, but also to those readers of ANTIQUITY whose geographical range does not necessarily extend to the Northern Isles.

References

CRAWFORD, B.E. 2001. The history and excavation of a royal Norwegian farm at the Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi Arbok 1997: 231-44.

FREKE, D, 1995. The Peel Castle dig. Douglas: The Friends of Peel Castle.

OWEN, O. 2000. Review of `The Biggings', Medieval Archaeology 44: 394.

TURNER, V. 2001. Review of `Kebister' and `The Biggings', Antiquaries Journal 81: 414-15.

James Graham-Campbell, Institute of Archaeology, 30-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, England. j.graham-campbell@ucl.ac.uk