A skeleton dating back 2,000 was found at the site in Unst
Posted on 07/04/2007 4:28:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An ancient Shetland settlement at risk of crumbling into the sea has been rebuilt - despite fears that it will soon be eroded. The work on the burial site in Sandwick Bay, Unst, follows an excavation led by the Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problems of Erosion Trust (Scape). It teamed up with the Council for Scottish Archaeology's Adopt-a-Monument scheme for the rebuild project. The new structures will allow visitors to see the excavation findings. It is thought that the structures may only last a couple of years, due to coastal erosion. Local groups, working with archaeologists and ancient building specialists, decided they should be built in their original positions, with nature being allowed to take its course.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
A skeleton dating back 2,000 was found at the site in Unst
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What’s that blue thing next to the skulls’ white teeth? Is that what he upchucked that caused him to die?
It’s a hair scrunchie. Turns out, the whole site was an Iron Age village of poofsters.
SANDWICK - Broch of Borwick - Entrance to broch ruin on Atlantic coast seacliffs SANDWICK ORKNEY
Interactive Orkney Map:
http://www.stonepages.com/ancient_scotland/orknemap.htm
Ah yes, reminds me very little of the Cairn tombs of my youth.
Orkney Bump.
Shetland has seemed to be some kind of magnet for thousands of years to marauding warriors on planned expeditions, along with fishermen, traders, explorers and smugglers. Even the Romans are said to have travelled this far north, naming the cluster of 100 islands, Ultima Thule.
Vikings, Norsemen and Danes along with seafarers from other countries landed and made their home here, seasoning further the culture that can be experienced here today. In the ninth century Norsemen voyaged in their long ships in search for new lands across the sea. Caithness, the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland all succumbed to the powerful might of the Vikings. From 872 AD the natives gave way to them and after the warriors, came farmers and their families and with them, a whole new culture establishing a powerful Viking earldom in Orkney. Scandinavian rule was to last in Shetland until the mid 15th century until it was given to Scotland as a dowry, although the Scandinavian influence prevails even to this day. The Vikings took their law and their language wherever they went and most of Shetland's place names are derived from the Viking language.
I really like the green stone. They used the same stuff when they built Broch Olie.
More iron-age Scottish news:
One of the biggest Iron Age roundhouses ever found in Scotland has been uncovered during an archaeological dig near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/6242634.stm
The 2,000-year-old stone building was found in the Bennachie hills on the site of an earlier Bronze Age fort.
The archaeologists who uncovered it said the size of the building suggested it was inhabited by society’s elite.
But they said it was impossible to say what relationship the owners had with Roman soldiers living in nearby camps.
The 20m wide roundhouse was lived in by the predecessors of the Picts around the time of the Roman invasions of northern Scotland.
It was found in an area known as Maiden Castle, at the foot of the Bennachie range’s Mither Tap peak.
A 20-strong team of professional archaeologists, students and local volunteers have spent the last two weeks excavating and mapping the site.
It was led by Murray Cook, of Edinburgh-based AOC Archaeology, who said the people living in the house would have been farmers growing a mixture of crops and keeping a stock of animals.
He added: “It is one of the biggest roundhouses in Scotland and is certainly what we would class as an elite residence.
“It is from period running from 200 BC to 200 AD, when the most substantial roundhouses were being built across Scotland.”
The roundhouse was surrounded by a cobbled road. Mr Cook said the inhabitants would have engaged in long-distance trade, and would almost definitely have been aware of the Roman presence to the south.
He added: “They might have been around when the Romans invaded northern Scotland and there are Roman marching camps nearby.
“But it is impossible to say whether those in the roundhouse fled, resisted or befriended the Romans when they arrived. We have only really scratched the surface of the site so far.”
The work was done as part of a survey by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
There are a couple DNA markers that are unique to the Shetlands. They also appear in Iceland and supports the theory that The Shetlands were the 'jump off point' for the Vikings on their way to Iceland.
BTW, for a location to accumulate it's own DNA markers, a lot of time must pass.
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