North Norwegian farm mounds – economic resources and landscape conditions

Martens, Vibeke Vandrup

doi:10.1484/m.ruralia-eb.5.110463

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…I have used a research plan focusing on landscape analysis to help me contextualise the Norse settlement sites; to determine the nature of Norse settlements and their relationship to the Pictish period past; and to explore the Norse attitude towards the Pictish period population on the Western Isles. The approach is similar to studies on the Norse reuse of Pictish period settlement mounds in Orkney by Jane Harrison (2013) and Norse-era settlement mounds (Norwegian: gårdshauger) identified in northern Norway (Bertelsen 1973;Martens 2016). In the study area the Norse settlements were identified through the presence of Norse period pottery near key landscape features on agricultural land, such as settlement mounds or middens.…”

Section: Methodology and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Revisiting the Norse on the Western Isles from a Landscape Perspective

Ryder¹

2021

viking

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Historically the research on the relationship between the Norse and Pictish period population of the Western Isles has largely focused on place-name evidence, due to the prevalence of Old Norse place names over Pictish period ones and a scant archaeological record. Placename scholars, as well as archaeologists have traditionally split into two schools of interpretation: a ‘war school’ and a ‘peace school’. The war school argues that the archaeological and place-name material contains proof of a Norse genocide against the Pictish period inhabitants, while the peace school has advocated assimilation or acculturation. In the last few decades excavations and surveys have given a better understanding of the Norse presence on the islands. This article approaches the question of whether the Pictish period population survived, through an archaeological landscape analysis that incorporates settlement sites and uses place-name data. It argues that the landscape displays proof of a surviving Pictish period culture within a dominant Norse society, though this survival as probably asymmetrical and regional.

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Section: Methodology and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 81%