Norse Animal Husbandry in Liminal Environments: Stable Isotope Evidence from the Scottish North Atlantic Islands

ABSTRACT

This paper employs δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N analysis of bone collagen to explore animal management at large Norse settlement sites in the liminal environments of the Scottish North Atlantic Islands. The Norse period was a time of social, cultural and economic change; the need to feed an expanding population and the demand for trade meant that domestic stock were a crucial resource. Our results indicate that rearing animals in these challenging insular environments required careful management. At all sites, the diet and movement of domestic cattle and sheep were highly similar and carefully controlled and, despite many of the analysed settlements lying close to the coast, there was no use of shorefront grazing or fodder resources. In contrast, pig rearing strategies varied across the island groups. In the Western Isles pig diets were diverse, indicative of household or ad hoc management, whilst on Orkney all pigs consumed a more restricted diet based primarily on terrestrial protein. A comparison of red deer with domestic stock on the Western Isles indicates that both groups were exploiting similar grazing niches.     

Bone weight,meat yield estimates and cod (Gadus morhua): A preliminary study of the weight method

Past approaches to the Weight Method (use of the weight of excavated bone assemblages to evaluate the relative potential meat yield of the animals from which they came) are critically reviewed. They do not account for both inter-taxon and intra-taxon variability in the relationship between bone weight and total body or soft tissue weight. Critics of the Weight Method have assumed that these problems are insurmountable. It is argued here that they can be overcome practically. Solutions lie in the integration of classic Weight Method approaches, which assume a consistent ratio of bone weight to body weight between different taxonomic and size groups, with the understanding of animal scaling provided by studies of skeletal mass allometry. Allometric equations derived from original data (regarding cod, Gadus morhua) and available from published sources (regarding mammals and birds) are used to illustrate this argument. Three practical approaches to the Weight Method are suggested and briefly explored, using bone weight data from Earls' Bu, a Norse site in Orkney, Scotland, as a case study.     

Harnessing the waves: Monuments and ceremonial complexes in Orkney and beyond

Utilising recent observations by Phillips (2003) on the location of chambered cairns in Orkney in relation to the sea this paper attempts to explain why megalithic monuments cluster in particular locations. In the past, the distribution of cairns has been related to the levels of survival in marginal locations. However, monument locations, from across Scotland, demonstrate that clustering was a feature of monumental distribution in the past. From a maritime perspective it becomes easier to understand these groupings in Orkney as the product of interactions between widely dispersed island communities. Utilising a long-term perspective it is possible to use the relative patterning of monuments of different ages to suggest the changing audiences to whom these monuments were addressed. For example, the clustering of Earlier Neolithic monuments in Orkney, in places that form important linking locales, suggests a role for these monuments involving establishing and maintaining links between island groups within the Orkney archipelago. The location of later Neolithic monumental complexes, on the other hand, suggests the importance of inter-regional maritime contact at precisely the time when such contacts are strikingly evident in the archaeological record. It is argued that a closer integration of our approaches to land and sea is needed if we are to understand the nature of long distance contacts in the past.

Protocol for Recording Enamel Hypoplasia in Modern and Archaeological Caprine Populations

This paper outlines the first methodology for recording dental enamel hypoplasia in the high‐crowned dentition of modern and archaeological caprine teeth. The method has been developed and trialed on five caprine populations from Orkney (UK); two modern populations (Shetland and North Ronaldsay breeds) and three Neolithic assemblages from the archaeological sites of Knap of Howar, Skara Brae and Holm of Papa Westray. Problems associated with differential tooth wear, as well as the presence of coronal cementum, are discussed, and recommendations are given on the identification and recording of hypoplastic dental defects in caprines. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Revealed by Waves: A Stratigraphic,Palaeoecological, and Dendrochronological Investigation of a Prehistoric Oak Timber and Intertidal Peats,Bay of Ireland,West Mainland,Orkney

An oak timber was discovered in 2013 within intertidal peats at the Bay of Ireland, Stenness, Orkney, representing a unique archaeological find. Subsequent excavation and rescue of the timber took place in 2014 to investigate its stratigraphical relationship before further eroding. Dendrochronological and morphological study identified the timber as a possible radially split log, c. 150 years of age when felled. No dendrochronological match was possible, and a wiggle-match date obtained provided a Later Mesolithic felling date of 4410–4325 cal BC. This timber is the first and only evidence so far for the use of oak in Mesolithic Orkney. The timber is significant palaeoecologically, suggesting oak may have been indigenous to Orkney. This adds to a growing argument for the existence of areas of “true woodland”. Pollen evidence shows the timber was deposited within reedswamp, fringed by willow-birch carr-woodland, with oak unlikely to have been growing in the immediate location. High microscopic and macroscopic charcoal values indicate Later Mesolithic communities exerted influence on this wetland using burning as a tool for landscape modification. It is unknown what the timber represents; it may have been for construction purposes or as a marker/possible landing place showing the path to the Loch of Stenness.     

Decline in firing technology or poorer fuel resources? High-temperature thermoluminescence (HTTL) archaeothermometry of Neolithic ceramics from Pool,Sanday, Orkney

The Neolithic ceramic assemblage from the multi-period coastal settlement at Pool on the island of Sanday, Orkney is unique because it stratigraphically spans both the earlier round-based (including possible Unstan bowls) and later flat-based (‘Grooved Ware’) traditions. High-temperature thermoluminescence (HTTL) analysis objectively demonstrates that ceramics from the earliest Neolithic layers have been consistently better fired compared to examples from later layers. We suggest two interpretations of these data: either firing technology declined with changing social structures and/or adoption of a different ceramic tradition or that there was greater pressure on fuel resource and management in the later Neolithic. Paleoenvironmental and chronological evidence indicate climatic deterioration in the later Neolithic, which adds further support to an interpretation of a poorer fuel resource at that time. In addition to studies of the HTTL signal, analysis of the ambient temperature modification of the TL signal has potential to support or evaluate dating evidence, and is readily applicable to optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age data.     

The Scottish national Antarctic expedition (1902–04) and the founding of Base Orcadas

The history of the establishment of the scientific research station on Laurie Island, South Orkney Islands, is recounted. Its founding by the Scottish National Antarctic (Scotia) Expedition (1902–04) and the subsequent operation by Argentina resulted in it becoming the first all‐year‐round permanently‐staffed research facility in Antarctica. The networks of government and non‐government personnel involved in the rivalry between British and Scottish interests and aspirations and the transfer of the Laurie Island facility from the Scottish expedition to Argentine government control are investigated. The narrative is set against the background of the centennial celebrations of that transfer.     

Stable isotope palaeodietary study of humans and fauna from the multi-period (Iron Age,Viking and Late Medieval) site of Newark Bay,Orkney

We report here on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of human and faunal bone collagen from the Iron Age, Viking Age, and Late Medieval site of Newark Bay, Orkney, Scotland. We found a wide range of results for humans in both δ¹³C (−15.4‰ to −20.3‰) and δ¹⁵N (8.6‰–15.6‰) values. The enriched carbon and nitrogen values indicate the consumption of significant amounts of marine protein, which is very unusual for post-Mesolithic (e.g. 4000 cal BC) UK and European populations. Also of interest is a statistically significant difference in δ¹³C (t = −2.48, p = 0.011) and δ¹⁵N (t = −2.44, p = 0.011) values, and therefore diets, between adult males and females at this site, with males (δ¹³C = −17.8 ± 1.2‰, δ¹⁵N = 13.2 ± 1.6‰) having, on average, a higher proportion of marine protein than females (δ¹³C = −18.9 ± 1.1‰, δ¹⁵N = 11.8 ± 1.8‰). The weaning age of the sub-adults was difficult to interpret due to the large isotopic variation in the adult females, but nearly all individuals between birth and 1.25 years have elevated δ¹⁵N values indicating that they were breastfed to some extent.     

Calving seasonality at Pool,Orkney during the first millennium AD: an investigation using intra-tooth isotope ratio analysis of cattle molar enamel

The identification of dairying is essential if we are to understand economies of the past, particularly in northwest Europe, where a high degree of lactose tolerance suggests that fresh milk has long been a significant food product. This paper explores a possible link between economic focus and seasonality of calving. Although cattle (Bos taurus) can breed throughout the year, animals living in temperate regions with minimal or no human management tend to breed seasonally, their breeding behaviour being strongly influenced by the availability of food. In order to achieve a year-round supply of fresh milk in the past, it is likely that multiple-season calving was necessary, which would have required additional husbandry effort. Alternatively, for meat-focussed economies or those based on storable dairy products, a strategy of single-season calving in spring may have been favoured to maximise the utilisation of spring and summer vegetation. Cattle birth seasonality is investigated through isotope ratio analysis (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C) of tooth enamel. Results for cattle from Pool, Orkney dating to the latter part of the first millennium AD suggest that calving occurred during at least three seasons implying that the continuous provision of fresh milk was of economic importance.