Scotland: Relations Natives and Vikings
What happened to the natives as Vikings began to explore and settle in Scotland? The nature of Viking settlement in Scotland is something to consider at the outset This was not a mass migration organised to someone’s design. Rather, it appears from the place-name and archaeological evidence to be a movement of individual families into an area which must have reminded them of home.The replacement of a native ruling class with a Scandinavian one is likely for some parts of Scotland. The formation of the Scandinavian earldom of Orkney late in the ninth century, for example, may have opened the way for more organised settlement and exploitation of resources by all in the new mixed communities.
The few sites which have been excavated suggest that with one exception - high status sites - single family farmsteads with outbuildings were the norm. However, in most cases they were situated on or close to pre-existing sites and this does include high status sites, which suggests that Viking leaders took over existing centres of power and administration. The limited number of places available for settlement may be a factor, but both place-names and sites show that sheltered places, where land for farming was available especially sites with sandy beaches close by were popular.That sites are also known almost exclusively from place-name evidence inland on the larger islands and on the mainland, merely reflects perhaps the small number of suitable sites available. Even if we accept that not all Scandinavian place-names necessarily represent Scandinavian settlers, but merely the influence of their language, looking at the overall picture there must have been some displacement/ dislocation of the native populations.
In the past scenarios have been painted of wholesale slaughter/ enslavement of the native populations. We are much more cautious today. One suggestion is that the Vikings arrived as raiders, shipping away slaves and valuables to the homelands. However, Scotland was not rich in silver and gold, as far as we can judge - it did not have the riches available for example in Ireland, or England or Francia. However, the St. Ninian’s Isle treasure, buried probably beneath a chapel floor on this Shetland isle in the late Pictish period, does comprise 28 silver objects, although the silver is not good quality. Was this buried because of the threat of Viking raids, or was it merely placed there for safe keeping?
Anna Ritchie has argued for some time that there are clear elements of cultural continuity from the pre Viking into the Viking Age in Scotland .
Contact continued between the newcomers and the natives she believes. Her argument was based originally on her excavations at Buckquoy close to the Brough of Birsay where excavation of a mound revealed several levels of occupation. Two phases of Pictish occupation preceded three phases of Viking Age occupation concluding in the late 10th century. Unfortunately this was a rescue excavation of a site already eroded by the sea and her interpretation that the site was a single farmstead with outbuildings in all occupation phases cannot be proved. The latest Pictish phase was a substantial figure of eight house, which was abandoned probably during the course of the 8th century. This was followed after an interval by sub-rectangular buildings, the earliest a byre or barn of drystone slabs backed with turf partly overlying the figure of eight house. This area became a midden in a later phase with a small rectangular building nearby and finally a substantial rectangular building was erected of large stone blocks and turves. The rectangular shape and use of turf can be paralleled elsewhere in the Viking Age. Overlying the remains of this building was a grave with a male inhumation with an Anglo-Saxon coin of 940 - 946.
The nub of her argument is that very little material of Scandinavian type was excavated from the site. Pictish material is however present in all levels - bone pins and combs for example. She argues therefore that some form of social integration is likely and has cited intermarriage, co-existence or dependence by the natives as possible scenarios.This would allow a continuation of Pictish influence on the newcomers.
Similar developments have been noted at other sites - at Saevar Howe, Orkney and more recently at Pool, Sanday Island, Orkney, where a small number of cellular buildings were arranged around a flagged courtyard and these appear to have continued in use into the Viking Age so natives continued to live alongside Scandinavians the excavator concluded, though perhaps at an inferior social level. On a separate site nearby a rectangular building with a timber frame on stone footings some 14m x 5m was erected. This should be seen in the Scandinavian tradition. Typically Pictish material is known from the site with the only new introductions large numbers of steatite pottery sherds and probably the cultivation of flax for manufacture of linen. Both steatite and flax are believed to be Scandinavian introductions into Scotland. Stone benches constructed against the inner walls of the Pictish houses show another feature, which in the past has been suggested as diagnostic of...
Viking houses
At Westness, on Rousay Island, Orkney, typically Viking graves with grave goods were added to a pre-existing Pictish cemetery without apparently disturbing the earlier graves.
A stone kerb was placed around a pagan burial at Kiloran Bay, Colonsay, Hebrides, a typically Pictish feature and a similar feature has been noted at Pierowall, on Westray, Orkney and at Bhaltos (or Valtos), on the Cnip headland, Lewis, Hebrides.
So, we can point to examples of Pictish influences upon apparent Viking sites and practices, suggesting cultural exchanges between the two populations, a process known to archaeologists as acculturation. It seems likely that in some areas of Scotland native rulers and their power bases were replaced by Scandinavians. In other areas, and/ or at other levels, as we shall see, there may have been a degree of co-operation between natives and newcomers.
Questions for you to think about
- List the possible relationships between the indigenous peoples of Scotland and the incoming Norse.
- List Anna Ritchie’s main arguments for interpreting a degree of acculturation in Scotland in the period.
Quiz
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Further Reading
Anderson, A.O. 1923 Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 - 1286 [2 vols.]