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6 - Hamar and Underhoull, Unst: Settlement in Northernmost Scotland
- Edited by Tom Horne, University of Glasgow, Elizabeth Pierce, University of Glasgow, Rachel Barrowman, University of Glasgow
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- Book:
- The Viking Age in Scotland
- Published by:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Published online:
- 20 October 2023
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2023, pp 85-97
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Summary
The island of Unst has a large number of recorded longhouses of apparently Viking or Norse date (Dyer et al. 2013). Unst is unique in that sites like this are found in a density and state of preservation unseen elsewhere in Britain, and it was this that led Shetland Amenity Trust to propose the ‘Viking Unst Project’ to investigate some of these sites and display them as a means of encouraging archaeological tourism to the island (Turner et al. 2013). In research terms, the unusual nature of the Unst settlement pattern demanded investigation. Previous survey and excavation (for example, Stumman-Hansen 1995, 2000) had suggested the sites were largely single-period with no evidence of earlier occupation. Many are on or above the 30m contour, which at this northern extremity of the British Isles today makes for environmentally precarious conditions. Just 20m above the site of Hamar House 2, for example, is the Keen of Hamar, where solifluction stripes caused by freeze-thaw action, and subarctic plant species, can be seen.
A settlement pattern of Viking-period farms with no pre-Viking activity, such as the Unst data suggested, is largely absent elsewhere in the Northern Isles, where Norse settlement is usually identified as a phase within multi-period sites located on good agricultural land (Dockrill and Bond, this volume). These deeply stratified sites, such as Jarlshof and Old Scatness in southern Shetland, often represent several millennia of occupation, of which the Viking-Age/Late Norse periods are late in the sequence (Hamilton 1956; Dockrill et al. 2010).
The main aim of the excavations at Hamar and Underhoull was to investigate this unusual settlement pattern, to test the presumed date of the houses and the theory that they were single-period settlements. Hamar was chosen as one of the sites because previous investigation had suggested it was early in date (Stummann-Hansen 2000) and it appeared remarkably well preserved with defined wall lines. Upper House, Underhoull, with its proximity to both Underhoull broch and Small’s excavations at the Norse site nearby, seemed likely to increase our understanding of the settlement pattern there (Small 1966).
Hamar
The site of Hamar consists of two single longhouses on the south-facing slope below the Keen of Hamar above Baltasound, Unst (Figure 6.1).
2 - What Does Landnám Look Like? Excavations at Swandro and Old Scatness
- Edited by Tom Horne, University of Glasgow, Elizabeth Pierce, University of Glasgow, Rachel Barrowman, University of Glasgow
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- Book:
- The Viking Age in Scotland
- Published by:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Published online:
- 20 October 2023
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2023, pp 29-42
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Summary
Research at two multi-period settlement mounds, Old Scatness (Shetland; Dockrill et al. 2010) and Swandro (Rousay, Orkney; ongoing, Bond and Dockrill 2016), suggests that many first-generation Scandinavian settlements occur at pre-existing Pictish settlements and associated landscapes. Both sites have settlement biographies that provide evidence for long sequences spanning the Early Iron Age to the Norse period, including evidence for landnam, or first settlement. Settlement on existing Pictish ‘estates’ (highstatus settlements with associated agricultural land, often originating in the Iron Age or earlier) would provide access to both maritime and agricultural resources, and it is suggested that ‘estate taking’ may have been a means of procuring key locations.
The term landnam is used in several ways in archaeology; Cleasby in his Icelandic–English dictionary defined it as ‘taking possession of land as settler, settlement’ (Cleasby and Vigfusson 1874), while Danish palynologist Iversen used it in the 1940s to describe features in pollen diagrams which he thought indicated clearance of the landscape by incoming Neolithic farmers, and it is still used in this sense (Iversen 1941). In North Atlantic archaeology it is often used in the context of settlement of a presumed empty landscape by the Norse in Iceland or the Faroe Islands. Here we use it in preference to the more loaded term ‘colonisation’ to indicate initial Norse settlement.
Old Scatness, Shetland
The site of Old Scatness formed a focus of archaeological research in Shetland, with excavations taking place between 1995 and 2006 (Dockrill 2002; Dockrill et al. 2006, 2010). Old Scatness lies on the western coastline of Dunrossness, on the southern tip of Mainland Shetland. To the west is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the north-east, the natural harbour of the Pool of Virkie and the North Sea. The Old Red Sandstone sedimentary sequence is a continuation of the same geological sequence as Orkney and provides a fertile agricultural zone together with good building stone. A substantial Iron-Age village was built around an early broch, which formed the focal point of the settlement. The broch demonstrates a complex sequence of at least three main phases of use, the last of which extends into the Pictish period (Figure 2.1).
Contributors
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- By Tod C. Aeby, Melanie D. Altizer, Ronan A. Bakker, Meghann E. Batten, Anita K. Blanchard, Brian Bond, Megan A. Brady, Saweda A. Bright, Ellen L. Brock, Amy Brown, Ashley Carroll, Jori S. Carter, Frances Casey, Weldon Chafe, David Chelmow, Jessica M. Ciaburri, Stephen A. Cohen, Adrianne M. Colton, PonJola Coney, Jennifer A. Cross, Julie Zemaitis DeCesare, Layson L. Denney, Megan L. Evans, Nicole S. Fanning, Tanaz R. Ferzandi, Katie P. Friday, Nancy D. Gaba, Rajiv B. Gala, Andrew Galffy, Adrienne L. Gentry, Edward J. Gill, Philippe Girerd, Meredith Gray, Amy Hempel, Audra Jolyn Hill, Chris J. Hong, Kathryn A. Houston, Patricia S. Huguelet, Warner K. Huh, Jordan Hylton, Christine R. Isaacs, Alison F. Jacoby, Isaiah M. Johnson, Nicole W. Karjane, Emily E. Landers, Susan M. Lanni, Eduardo Lara-Torre, Lee A. Learman, Nikola Alexander Letham, Rachel K. Love, Richard Scott Lucidi, Elisabeth McGaw, Kimberly Woods McMorrow, Christopher A. Manipula, Kirk J. Matthews, Michelle Meglin, Megan Metcalf, Sarah H. Milton, Gaby Moawad, Christopher Morosky, Lindsay H. Morrell, Elizabeth L. Munter, Erin L. Murata, Amanda B. Murchison, Nguyet A. Nguyen, Nan G. O’Connell, Tony Ogburn, K. Nathan Parthasarathy, Thomas C. Peng, Ashley Peterson, Sarah Peterson, John G. Pierce, Amber Price, Heidi J. Purcell, Ronald M. Ramus, Nicole Calloway Rankins, Fidelma B. Rigby, Amanda H. Ritter, Barbara L. Robinson, Danielle Roncari, Lisa Rubinsak, Jennifer Salcedo, Mary T. Sale, Peter F. Schnatz, John W. Seeds, Kathryn Shaia, Karen Shelton, Megan M. Shine, Haller J. Smith, Roger P. Smith, Nancy A. Sokkary, Reni A. Soon, Aparna Sridhar, Lilja Stefansson, Laurie S. Swaim, Chemen M. Tate, Hong-Thao Thieu, Meredith S. Thomas, L. Chesney Thompson, Tiffany Tonismae, Angela M. Tran, Breanna Walker, Alan G. Waxman, C. Nathan Webb, Valerie L. Williams, Sarah B. Wilson, Elizabeth M. Yoselevsky, Amy E. Young
- Edited by David Chelmow, Virginia Commonwealth University, Christine R. Isaacs, Virginia Commonwealth University, Ashley Carroll, Virginia Commonwealth University
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- Book:
- Acute Care and Emergency Gynecology
- Published online:
- 05 November 2014
- Print publication:
- 30 October 2014, pp ix-xiv
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Maternal Dietary Intake in Twin Pregnancies: Does it Diminish Towards Term?
- Ruth Morley, Mark P. Umstad, Jodie Bond, Vivienne M. Moore, Julie A. Owens, Terence Dwyer, John B. Carlin
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- Journal:
- Twin Research and Human Genetics / Volume 9 / Issue 5 / 01 October 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 February 2012, pp. 656-658
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- Article
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We tested the hypothesis that energy intake among women with twin pregnancies decreases in late gestation, as the uterus enlarges and they become increasingly uncomfortable. We asked women to recall dietary intake for the previous 24 hours, every 2 weeks from around 29 weeks of gestation, using a photographic atlas and other strategies to estimate portion size. Eighty women provided data at around 29, 31, 33 and 35 weeks of gestation. We calculated total energy intake, and energy intake from carbohydrate, fat and protein. Data were log transformed to reduce skewness. Using mixed effects linear regression models, we found minimal evidence that total energy intake changed over this time period, either before or after adjustment for potential confounding factors (95% confidence interval for relative change per week: −1.4%, 0.6%). There was weak evidence of a small decline in carbohydrate intake over time, both before and after controlling for energy intake. We cannot exclude change in energy intake or diet composition before 29 weeks or after 35 weeks of twin gestation.