A Northern Scottish Maritime Region: The Moray Firth in the Seventeenth Century

Worthington, David

doi:10.1177/084387141102300209

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…What we do know however, is that as early as the mid-16 th century, sugar was being purchased by the elite of the northern Highlands, along with other costly foodstuffs. Alexander Ross of Easter Ross, for example, purchased "twey laiffe cannered suicre [two loaves of candied sugar]" and "thrie punds suicur cande [sugar candy]", along with other imported items such as pepper and ginger (McGill, 1909: 264;Worthington, 2011;. Honey was also a regular foodstuff in many households and was used as a food sweetener, as the main ingredient for mead, for making candles and for its medicinal and antibacterial properties.…”

Section: Diet and Subsistencementioning

confidence: 99%

From Picts to Parish: Stable isotope evidence of dietary change at medieval Portmahomack, Scotland

Curtis-Summers

Pearson

Lamb

2020

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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In this study, period-specific dietary trends, along with socio-economic and religious influences on foods consumed by Pictish and medieval inhabitants from Portmahomack are investigated. Bone collagen from human adults (n=137) and fauna (n=71) were analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to enable dietary reconstructions of the whole adult skeletal assemblage. Adult mean δ 13 C and δ 15 N values from all periods (6 th to 17 th century) were -19.5‰ ± 1.3‰ and 13.3‰ ± 1.7‰ respectively. A diachronic change in diet between early medieval Pictish lay and monastic communities (periods 1-3) and the later medieval parish layfolk (periods 4-5) was found that suggests changing socio-economic and religious influences, along with age and gender differences in diet that reflect possible divisions in labour and status. Faunal data also reflected a diachronic change in diet, most likely related to a change in animal husbandry practices over time. This is the first large-scale study on the Portmahomack assemblage and presents new isotope data to provide a more comprehensive insight into Pictish and medieval subsistence patterns, along with evidence of how religious and social foci may influence diet over time. Such comprehensive investigations can only be adopted by analysing the whole skeletal assemblage, providing robust faunal baselines and inter-and intra-site comparisons. Most importantly, this significant new evidence fundamentally changes our knowledge of diet and subsistence in medieval Scotland and the potential influences therein.

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Section: Diet and Subsistencementioning

confidence: 99%

From Picts to Parish: Stable isotope evidence of dietary change at medieval Portmahomack, Scotland

Curtis-Summers

Pearson

Lamb

2020

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…However, it was also well known for corn and other goods. Worthington considers the Moray Firth region as a whole, and information about its fishing industries and the development of Inverness. Stone's article concerns the overseas trade of Bristol before the Civil War.…”

Section: –1700mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

Faith

Davis

Paul

et al. 2012

The Economic History Review

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The Settlements of the Beauly-Wick Coast and the Historiography of the Moray Firth

Worthington¹

2016

The Scottish Historical Review

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Narrow strips of sea do not always function as ‘chokepoints’ for the communities that live around them. This article interrogates the historiography of the ‘corridors’ of the Moray Firth region, taken here to be inclusive of the Dornoch Firth, the Cromarty Firth and the inner Moray Firth, and incorporating the Inverness, Kessock and Beauly Firths. Although public and private bodies use the term ‘Moray Firth’ frequently, with few exceptions historians have refrained from doing so. The settlements of the northerly part of the coast, in particular, have been poorly represented in the region's historiography, a theme interrogated in the first section of the article. Social and cultural interactions across the firth are explored, drawing specifically on the history of seven settlements around the Beauly-Wick edge: Pictish Portmahomack, Norse Dingwall, the medieval burgh and pilgrimage site of Tain, early modern Dornoch, nineteenth-century Wick and the modern industrial centres of Invergordon and Nigg. These communities interacted with others situated on the coast to the south. The article concludes by proposing several new questions and approaches for future historical writing on the Moray Firth.

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A Northern Scottish Maritime Region: The Moray Firth in the Seventeenth Century

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

From Picts to Parish: Stable isotope evidence of dietary change at medieval Portmahomack, Scotland

From Picts to Parish: Stable isotope evidence of dietary change at medieval Portmahomack, Scotland

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

The Settlements of the Beauly-Wick Coast and the Historiography of the Moray Firth

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