This talk, hosted by the Scottish Society for Northern Studies, was not recorded and is not available to view after the broadcast date.
A talk on Norse period Orphir kicks off the Scottish Society for Northern Studies new season of online seminars next week.
Orphir: A Norse Economic Hub, by Dr Colleen Batey, takes place on Thursday, August 26, at 7pm.
Dr Batey excavated at the Earl’s Bu, in Orphir, Orkney, from 1978 until 1991, in the early 1990s. Work to bring this to publication revealed many unexpected highlights.
The excavation of a Norse period horizontal mill, the first example in Scotland for this period, provided a focus for intensive study of the land economy. Cattle and sheep management indicate a continuity of agricultural practice from the Iron Age, pre-Viking period to the modern day.
Cereal cultivation, probably organised at the behest of the Norse Earls, as well as fishing nearby, provides an excellent backdrop to this feasting centre described in the Orkneyinga saga.
Isotopic study of cat bones suggests a close link with the cats in Viking Coppergate (York) and extensive wider links can be identified in the evidence from the bullion economy at the site as well as imported steatite.
To register for the talk, click here.
It’s worth it looking at for the drawing by Iain Ashman…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/10/29/mooching-about-at-the-bu/