SEACHANGE partners from Exeter, York, Copenhagen and Mainz visit Orkney
Posted on 03/10/2022 By: Luke Holman
This summer on a crisp and bright July morning the SEACHANGE team boarded a ferry to the Orkney Islands. This archipelago juts off the wild northern coast of Scotland and is comprised of about 70 islands, critically for SEACHANGE, it has been subject to human occupation for thousands of years. Orkney is surrounded by bountiful, deep seas and the islands are dotted with a rich archaeological record, including the UNESCO world heritage site ‘The Heart of Neolithic Orkney’. The choppy voyage set off from Thurso, around west of the island of Hoy and past the striking red sandstone stack; ‘The Old Man of Hoy’. SEACHANGE Partners from Exeter, York, Copenhagen and Mainz arrived in Stromness on mainland Orkney to join our local team member Dr. Jen Harland for the annual meeting and archaeological fieldwork.
Resting beside the upstanding Victorian croft houses at Skail Farm, Rousay. Mainland Orkney shown in the background
Upon arrival the team visited the dramatic Stones of Stenness and the exciting excavation of the Ness of Brodgar, guided by international expert on Orkney prehistory Prof. Mark Edmonds. However the primary focus of SEACHANGE on Orkney is the last 2000 years, covering the intensification of fishing and marine habitat loss. The team therefore visited the Kirbuster Museum Firehoose – a 400 year old original local dwelling, complete with dingy low ceilings, tight doorways and a deep scent of peat smoke from the central fireplace. The main gate was arched by the jawbones of an unknown whale species and it was easy to imagine how marine resources must have played a key role in sustaining the occupants during long, cold Orcadian winters. Later that evening the team were welcomed to the Stromness Museum by Janette Park (curator) and her team where SEACHANGE received an insightful tour around the artefacts and collections. All were enthralled by the range of marine objects and curio, their excellent preservation and the carefully described exhibition details. The highlight for many of the more sclerochronologically-minded team members was the substantial Arctica islandica (Ocean quohog) shell specimen. Sadly, as part of a permanent exhibition, the specimen was not readily available for our analysis, despite assurances for a prompt return of shell sections bisected during sampling.
Jen Harland guiding other SEACHANGE researchers around The Kirbuster Museum Firehoose harth.
Fortunately, the following morning the team travelled to the island of Rousay to learn about the live archaeological dig and secure samples for SEACHANGE. The site of Skaill Farm sits within a clearance landscape, a series of ruined stone croft houses abandoned in the late 19th century overlying centuries of human habitation. The current excavation, led by a team from the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI), has been ongoing since 2015. The UHI team generously guided us around the site and both the archeologically amateur and adept SEACHANGE participants were able spend the day digging the site. Meanwhile the University of Copenhagen contingent geared up to clear back the surface of trenches and sample for ancient environmental DNA in the middens found across Skaill Farm. These samples should provide valuable information on the subsistence patterns across the period of occupancy. We hope to be able to place these findings in the broader context of other regional changes in human marine resource exploitation, comparing these results to the wider marine biodiversity and climate changes across Northeast Scotland.
Excavating a sequence of later medieval and post-medieval buildings in Trench 19. The SEACHANGE team helps to clear out rubble from later collapse and levelling events
The SEACHANGE team opening up a new trench to find midden layers
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Taking sedaDNA samples (photo: Jen Harland)
Assorted finds, clockwise from top left: cod bones, a post-medieval wine bottle neck, implement handle made of whale bone, heavy base from a post-medieval wine bottle, inside face of an imported Continental stoneware pot, outer face of same, early modern glazed pottery and glass, and locally made medieval courseware pottery. (photo: Jen Harland)
After a long dig on Rousay the SEACHANGE team spent the subsequent day at Orkney College UHI in Kirkwall for our annual meeting. As usual we enjoyed learning about the data generated in the project since our last event, making new plans, and catching up scientifically. As our discussions slipped into the late afternoon, we shared a well-received dinner at the Lynnfield Hotel adjacent to the Highland Park whisky distillery.
Overall, this was an important and interesting visit, allowing us to spend some time together away from offices and screens. It gave those who had recently joined the project a chance to get to know all the partners and providing further opportunities for new avenues of research within our project objectives. As the ferry back to the mainland pushed off from the Stromness harbour many of had already begun planning our return trip to the islands.
