Search Project Results: Scotland

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	Hagrie's Böd, Gunnister Voe,Shetland	From the early sixteenth century, perhaps even from the second decade of the fifteenth century, ships from north Germany made there way across the north Atlantic to Shetland. The main item of trade for the Hanseatic traders was dried fish which was obtained at the trading places in Norway, Iceland, Faroes as well as the Northern Isles of Scotland and brought back to the northern German ports. The character of this trade has yet to be investigated in detail. Although the bare historical outlines of commerce are known, the details of the interaction between the merchants from northern Germany who spent three, four or five months trading fish with the people of the Northern Isles still remain obscure. The small trading site at Gunnister Voe in Shetland is one of the better documented trading sites. The right to trade at Gunnister Voe was granted to Simon Hagarskale of Hamburg in 1582, but revoked in 1603 because it was said that he had not always come there. This is evidently Simon Harriestede mentioned in Hamburg records as sailing to Shetland until 1625. The trading site can be identified with the place known as Hagrie’s Böd in Gunnister Voe, a rocky promontory projecting into the voe. Immediately behind the promontory is beach with an enclosure which would have been suitable for landing boats bringing dried fish to exchange. The Hamburg ship would have been anchored out in the voe in deeper water. Excavations by Queen’s University and Römisch-Germanische Kommission in September 2008 examined the site and revealed the surviving two walls of the böd or booth. However, deposits below the floor level contained pottery of the 18th or 19th century, suggesting the site had continued in use or, more probably, had been reoccupied when the adjoining crofts at the Setter of Enisferth were established. The building is shown as abandoned on 1881 Ordnance Survey plan, though the remains were evidently clear enough for the surveyors to map them.
	Everley Broch, Caithness	The site of Everley Broch, situated in Caithness, is composed of a Middle Iron Age broch and a Late Norse house. This project aimed to study the human/plant interaction on the site and see its evolution through time. The archaeobotanical assemblage shows that hulled barley was the main staple crop cultivated in both periods. The Late Norse assemblage also indicates the introduction of cultivated oat and flax as well as a general intensification of the agricultural production. The archaeobotanical assemblage, combined with some pollen analysis, indicates that the local environment around the site was free of dense woodland. Regarding the wood procurement strategies, local gathering, short-distance timber trade within the mainland and collection of driftwood are attested. It is proposed that a long-distance trade network within the Scottish mainland or Scandinavia was established during the Norse period as a fourth wood supply strategy. Everley Broch macroplant remains indicates that the broch was housing farmers with a subsistence-based economy. The Late Norse household however proposes a wealthier economy with three cultivated plants and the establishment of a long-distance trade network. Within a wider Atlantic Scotland framework, Everley Broch follows the general agricultural patterns observed elsewhere. The main wood procurement strategy is similar to the other sites of Caithness and Sutherland, but differs slightly from the ones seen in the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland islands. As Everley Broch is located on the Scottish mainland where more timber is available, it is believed that driftwood was not as important as for the other sites of Atlantic Scotland.
	Geophysical survey at Tingwall, Shetland, Shetland	The present report summarizes the geophysical survey at Tingwall, which is home of the most important assembly site of Shetland. The survey was undertaken in May 2010 and is part of The Assembly Project.
	Geophysical survey at Housa Voe, Papa Stour, Shetland, Papa Stour, Shetland	A geophysical survey at Housa Voe, Papa Stour, was undertaken in May 2010. The survey forms part of The Assembly Project.
	Rousay, Orkney: Gateway to the Atlantic, Orkney	This project forms part of the Orkney Gateway to the Atlantic project. The core aim of this research initiative is to inform on sustainability and reliance strategies in the past, investigating how people (and society) reacted and adapted to climatic and environmental change over time. Due to the northerly position of Orkney, the islands have shorter growing seasons and a degree of marginality, which offers a remarkable opportunity to study the long-term effects of climate change and how people survived and adapted, from the first farmers over 5,000 years ago through to the clearances in the 19th century. As well as adaptation and sustainability, this long time frame provides the potential to study cultural changes as a result of contact and trade. This research initiative is linked to a wider research agenda investigating these themes across the North Atlantic by fellow researchers within the North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation (NABO). The field school was designed as a research programme. The majority of sites targeted for study are coastal as Orkney has a serious and growing problem of rising sea level and coastal erosion. The two main sites examined so far are both suffering from the effects of coastal erosion. These are the broch mound at Brough or South Howe, and the Knowe of Swandro. Both sites have enormous research potential, providing important archaeological and scientific data that might be used to study how people in the past confronted the marginality of these northern islands and how this changed over time with fluctuating environmental/climatic parameters.
	Survey of medieval harbours at Shetland, Shetland
	Archaeolgocal excavations at the Law Ting Holm, Tingwall, Shetland, 2011, Shetland	Data Structure Report / Interim Field Report on the excavation carried out in summer 2010.
	Modelling changes in the coastal geomorphology of Unst, Shetland and the implications for understanding High to Late Medieval harbour changes in the Scandinavian North Atlantic, Unst, Shetland Islands	This sub-project is part of the SP5 Geomorphology section of the HaNoA project. The geomorphological setting of Norse harbours in the Atlantic is variable, with contrasting landform stability over short, medium and long time scales. Here we assess geomorphological change on the island of Unst, the most northerly of the British Isles, a coastline used by the Norse, as well as earlier and later societies. This island offer a complex coastline of deep fjords and arcuate embayments and thus significent differences in forces acting upon the coastline. There is also evidence for instability in the beaches used by Norse that could have been driven by the changes in climate conditions from the Medieval Climatic Anomaly to the Little Age and the present day. We model coastlines using the sediment dynamics model MIKE21. Model results agree well with the location of extant sandy beaches on Unst, but model runs with modern environmental drivers also build sandy beaches where none currently exist. Blown sand deposits were formed in the 12th-13th century, consistent with High Medieval settlement times and the onset of the Little Ice Age, suggesting that some of the Norse landing sites began to destabilise at this time. This research will show how beach instability can be modelled to determine the likely circumstances under which beaches formed, changed or disappeared and thus the potential geomorphological drivers of coastal change, harbour use and our ability to identify past harbour sites.
	Isle of Vallay Archaeology/Climate Change Expedition 2017, Outer Hebrides	We are in our second season of a survey of Erskine Beveridge sites on he Isle of Vallay, impacted by Climate Change.
	Isle of Vallay Archaeology/Climate Change Expedition 2017, Outer Hebrides	We are in our second season of a survey of Erskine Beveridge sites on he Isle of Vallay, impacted by Climate Change.