Following last week’s Lerwick Garden Dig, the LIFTE project team gathered in Orkney for their first in-person meeting since the project began in October 2020.
LIFTE (Looking in from the Edge) is an international project examining Orkney and Shetland’s place in European trade networks of the 15th to 18th centuries.
At last week’s meetings the group were able to refining core research topics, aided by visits to the Orkney Museum, Orkney Library and Archive, Kirbuster Farm Museum, Orkney College UHI and a walking tour of Kirkwall.
In-person group discussion looking at archive documents, material culture and architecture, was much enhanced by support of expert guides. Special thanks to assistant archivist Lucy Gibbon, Orkney Museum engagement officer Tom Muir, Kirbuster Farm Museum custodian Neil Leask, historian Jocelyn Rendall and Kirkwall guides Ragnhild Ljosland and Christopher Gee.
The UK team is led by Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon of the Archaeology Institute UHI.
She said: “This long-awaited in-person meeting in Orkney was very productive and it was great to meet up with almost the whole project team for the first time and share aspects of Orkney’s Early Modern past with them.
“A particular highlight for me was showing the team some of the archive documents we’ve been working with in the Orkney Library and Archive. We are very fortunate to have such a range of rich resources available on our doorstep and knowledgeable staff to support our research there.”
