Excavations at Quoygrew, Westray, Orkney, and the Viking Age Transitions Project

Email: jhb5@york.ac.uk

The Viking Age Transitions Project

 One current focus of the project is excavation at the Viking Age and medieval site of Quoygrew, which lies on the north side of Rack Wick, a large west-facing bay in Westray, Orkney. This work has six main goals:

1. to clarify the existence and timing of economic changes (a shift from shore based to open water fishing and a corresponding increase in reliance on marine foods) which may mark the Pictish-Viking Age transition in northern Scotland.

2. to help understand the growth of trade in commodities such as dried fish from medieval Orkney.

3. to place a date on the intensive development of agriculture indicated by the formation of deep man-made soils.

4. to help reveal the spatial layout of a Norse farmstead and its associated fishing station.

5. to provide an archaeological site which could be developed as an educational and recreational resource.

6. to record coastal components of the site prior to their destruction by marine erosion.

The 1999 Field Season

Quoygrew was first investigated by Sarah Colley, then of University of Southampton, who excavated a test pit in eroding coastal middens in 1978. In 1997 further reconnaissance work was begun, leading to a 6 week field season in July and August, 1999. Together, this work has made it possible to identify and date the key components of what has proven to be a well preserved Viking Age and medieval farmstead. The settlement can presently be divided into four main areas: a fish midden, a Viking Age/medieval house, a farm mound and an infield.

At the shoreline is an eroding 'fish midden' composed predominately of peat ash, marine shell (probably representing bait), and fish bone which has been dated to the 11th-12th centuries. It may represent waste from a fishing station where dried cod and fish oil (extracted by boiling fish livers in vessels and used for lamps or the payment of tax) would be produced. This midden, and similar examples elsewhere in northern Scotland, may represent the growth of trade in dried fish which came to dominate the economy of Norway and its North Atlantic colonies in the High Middle Ages.

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Figure 1. The Late Viking Age/medieval house at Quoygrew

Approximately 15 metres from the shore is a rectangular dry stone house with a central hearth and an earth floor composed largely of fine lenses of peat ash. The inner face of stonework along the south wall (lower in Figure 1) is a bench. Based on geophysical survey the structure continues beyond the limits of excavation to both east and west. Two internal dividing walls are currently visible, the western one being a late addition. They demarcate a room with interior dimensions of 4.4m x 5.3m and walls c.0.9m thick.

The floor layers (and middens outside the house) contained both medieval pottery and soapstone artefacts which may be of Viking Age date. The building may thus have been in use during the 11th-12th century transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, but this estimate must be refined by radiocarbon dating and further study of the artefacts.

Figure 2. Early stages of excavation in the Viking Age 'farm mound'

Just east of the medieval house is a low mound reaching a maximum height of c. 1.6m. It is composed principally of Viking Age middens with exceptionally good bone preservation. A modern croft and garden, abandoned in the 1930s, sits on top of the mound, and its core is composed of earlier midden layers of unknown (possibly Pictish) date. A flagstone path runs up the side of the mound in the Viking Age strata, but no other architectural features were found. It is hoped that study of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical material from this deposit will provide information regarding economic changes which may be associated with the Viking colonisation of Orkney.

Figure 3. Landscape survey using a soil auger and high precision GPS.

The archaeological landscape around Quoygrew has been surveyed to locate associated field systems and additional settlement sites. Auger holes were bored at 40 metre intervals to detect midden material (indicative of settlement) or deep relict soils (indicative of intensive cultivation) and the results recorded using a high precision GPS mapping system. One relict infield, covering an area of c.80m x 200m, has been located adjacent to Quoygrew. It immediately overlies the farm mound, providing a Viking Age terminus post quem. Based on ethnohistoric evidence and soil micromorphology this field (which reaches depths of c. 1 metre in an area where natural soils seldom exceed 30 centimetres) was probably created by stripping sediment from uncultivated areas, mixing it with farmstead waste and seaweed, and depositing it in an area adjacent to the farmstead where continuous cultivation would be practised. The development of anthropogenic fields of this type in northern Scotland represents a substantial investment of labour and an intensification of agriculture which is likely to have had socio-economic implications. The landscape survey around Quoygrew also identified additional (presently undated) relict fields and at least four new settlement sites.

Laboratory and Text Based Research

 In addition to fieldwork at Quoygrew, the Viking Age Transitions Project entails a series of laboratory and text based studies. Much of the laboratory work, including zooarchaeology, archaeobotany and soil science, focuses on postexcavation analysis of the Quoygrew finds. However, the project also involves dietary analysis of human bone using stable carbon isotopes and marine reservoir correction of radiocarbon dates on ‘Christian' and ‘non-Christian' burials. The most important text based research involves a study of historical and archaeological evidence relating to the growth of centralised power, urbanism and trade in the Earldom of Orkney.

The Project Team

 James Barrett, University of York (Principal Investigator) – Fieldwork, zooarchaeology, historical research and project synthesis.
Colleen Batey, Glasgow Museums – Small finds.
Roelf Beukens, University of Toronto – Stable isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating and marine reservoir correction.
Ewan Campbell & Robert Will, University of Glasgow – Pottery.
Tony Davis, University of Toronto – Palynology.
Jacqui Huntley, University of Durham – Archaeobotany.
Heather James, University of Glasgow – Fieldwork co-director.
Karen Millek, University of Cambridge – Sediment micromorphology (cultural deposits).
Terry O'Connor, University of York – Terrestrial and marine molluscs, landscape interpretation.
Euphemia Photos-Jones, University of Glasgow – Fuel ash.
Sandra Poaps, University of Toronto – Archaeobotany.
Tessa Poller, University of Chicago – GPS survey.
Lorna Sharpe, University of Glasgow – Geophysical survey.
Ian Simpson, University of Stirling – Sediment micromorphology (soils).

 Acknowledgements

 Work at Quoygrew has been made possible by a large number of individuals and organisations. The project's success is in large measure due to the expertise of the field supervisors, including Andrew Griffin, Donna Maguire, Jayne Oltmann, Brian Rahn and Vicki Szabo. Assistance from George and Margaret Drever, Stephen and Linda Hagan, Ally and Maureen Sangster, Anne Brundle and Julie Gibson is also gratefully acknowledged. The work has been funded by a variety of organisations, including the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, Historic Scotland, Hunter Archaeological Trust, Hunter Marshall Bequest Fund, Orkney Islands Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Society for Medieval Archaeology.