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The Icelandic sagas tell us about those A Vikings, such as Ketil Flat-Nose, who raided and fought and eventually settled in the
Scottish Isles, while the monastic chronicles tell us about the pagan Norsemen who looted and seized the valuable objects stored in the monasteries. The general picture of the Vikings is of a violent and warlike people.
Even the evidence of the change in place names given to farms and settlements, to hills and headlands, gives us the impression of a removal of the native population and their replacement by an overwhelming tide of
Norsemen and their families. Nevertheless, almost no evidence of a violent takeover has been found at any of the excavations in the Scottish Isles. There are no extensive areas of burning or destruction, and very little
evidence of the building of defensive structures. In fact, the Norse were not used to the idea of building forts or duns at home: the remarkable defensive towers built in Pictland, which they called 'brochs', made
such a deep impression on them that they used the term whenever they gave a name to a place that had one nearby. But they did not use them as forts or make their homes in them; the only sort of defenses they seem to
have made use of were on headlands protected by earth ramparts and ditches. The most telling archaeological evidence of raiding and looting comes from the remote St. Ninian's Isle in Shetland, where a hoard of Pictish
silver was found hidden beneath the floor of a Celtic chapel, dating from about the year 800AD. This must have been left behind by a Pictish priest or chieftain fleeing from a Viking raid. There does seem to have been
a sudden change in the population however. In all the pre-Norse settlements that have been excavated, the circular stone dwellings built by the Picts have been replaced by Viking long-houses. These were typically some
7Oft long with one main hall. beads. In many respects we know a great deal more about the Vikings who arrived in the north in the 8th and 9th centuries than we do about the Picts whom they succeeded. This is because, as
pagans and worshippers of the old Germanic gods such as Thor and Odin, the Vikings considered it necessary to bury grave goods with their dead. There are a number of graves from the early Viking period in Scotland
that relate to similar graves in Scandinavia itself, showing how the Vikings brought their social customs with them, and also how they were influenced by the Celts with whom they came into contact. Although the
number of graves discovered so far in Scotland is not great - perhaps 80 or 90 in total - they are distributed all around the northern and western coasts as well as in Caithness and Sutherland, and the majority are in
the Hebrides and in Orkney. One or two stray finds in south eastern Scotland are evidence of the movement of Vikings through this area on raids. The numbers of mens and women's graves are roughly equal, indicating that
the Vikings brought their women with them to settle from the earliest days. There are cemeteries of communities as well as individual chieftain's grave particularly in the Hebrides. Without exception the
men are accompanied in their graves by a complement of weapons - sword, spear, axe, shield and arrowheads. Quite often there other objects, associated with more peaceful pursuits, such as sickles or shares, some
smithying tools or gaming dice. That the weapons had been used is sometimes clear from the shield boss for example - and in the case of one of the male skeletons found at Westness on Rousay, his manner of death was not
in doubt, for arrowheads were found lodged in his spine and side. Question is, whose arrows were they? Pictish or Norse? The women's graves are in their way just as exciting, for they tell us something of the domestic
occupations of the wives and daughters of the Norse warriors. The honour shown to the dead women gives us an impression of the high regard accorded them in life, compared with the status of most women in other early
medieval societies. The process of moving to new colonies, combined with the roving way of life of the men, probably gave the women a social importance that they would have lacked in more conventional situations: they
would have been left in charge of the farms and homes when the menfolk were away and thus given a degree of independence that was some 70ft long with one main hall. beads, is commonly found in women's graves, unusual
for the time. Norse women's graves usually include a certain type of brooch, called a 'tortoise'; brooch, which was pinned on each shoulder to hold up an over-kirtle. The brooches are of standard
manufacture and remarkably similar all over the Norse world, whether they are found in the; remote Hebridean island of St. Kilda or in the eastern Baltic. The Norse women also a Celtic style of brooch that
they found in Scotland and Ireland. They liked beads too; these were rather large and made of heavy glass and strung between the two shoulder brooches. Norse women's activities were closely connected with the
home, as might be expected. Apart from the cooking utensils such as ladles, cauldrons, cooking spits, bowls and knives, her possessions frequently included tools associated with the craft of textile working and
cloth making. There are sheep shears, iron heckles, spindle-whorls and weaving- swords used for the spinning and weaving of woolen cloth; and, for linen-working, smooth glass domes and flat boards for pressing and
ironing. Needle-cases also tell us of the hours they must have spent sewing garments for their family. One object found in nearly all the graves of both men and women is a bone comb, often rather large and finely made.
Was the grooming of their hair mainly perhaps to get rid of hair lice and fleas an important part of their social and personal relationships, as it is in some African tribes today? Surprisingly, the graves
found in Scotland tell us very little about pagan beliefs, for no statues of gods or heathen emblems have been found. Nor have any heathen temples been excavated in this part of the Norse world: if they were not
destroyed when the settlers were converted to Christianity, they would have been turned into Christian chapel sites. There is only one certain example of a human sacrifice, from a grave in the Isle of Man, where a young
woman, perhaps a slave- girl, had been killed by a slash to her skull before being placed on top of the burial mound of her lord and master. There are, however, several instances of animals being killed and buried with
their owners. So Viking graves tell us a very great deal more about the people and their way of life than do their house sites, which have not produced anything like the variety and quality of the grave-goods. It is
unlikely that weapons and other valuable items would have been discarded, so it is only the worn-out objects of everyday life that are retrieved from house sites. Moreover, the early Norse houses were adapted to other
uses over the centuries, so it is not easy to assess the quality of lifestyle of the first builders and settlers. Jarlshof was a flourishing community, which established itself near some of the best land in Shetland and
close by the remains of the previous population's dwellings. Here it is possible to get an impression of the colonial settler, the Viking turned farmer - which is what they all eventually became. |
