A COLLECTION of research aiming to better understand the Vikings' history and their Scandinavian impact on Scotland through archaeological finds and scientific analysis has been released.
The analysis correlated in the book guides the reader through the latest interdisciplinary research from across the country around multiple topics including the arrival and settlement of the Vikings, their politics, and even their environmental impact.
Some of the notable research includes a better understanding of the Viking's influence across Central Scotland, how they lived amongst Scots, the introduction of a silver economy, and the semi-industrial level of fish processing.
The Viking Age in Scotland revisits the 1998 Scottish Scandinavian Archaeology survey, which is widely regarded as a significant resource for Viking history in Scotland and includes updated discoveries like the Galloway Hoard, which was unearthed in 2014.
Advances in scientific analysis over the last two decades have greatly improved researchers’ understanding of Viking’s daily life between the late eighth and fifteenth centuries, an expert has said.
According to the book's co-author Tom Horne, who wrote and edited The Viking Age in Scotland with Elizabeth Pierce and Rachel Barrowman, a lot of what was believed about the Vikings in Scotland 20 years ago still holds true today.
Horne said: “We're much better now with the level of forensic detail that we can take from the site that the story we can tell now it's far more nuanced.”
He explained that the thematic sections of the book allow internal debates as multiple stories can be told from the same data.
“What we thought 20 years ago in the Vikings of Scotland and a lot of that's still correct, but there's a lot of subtleties that we can get into now.”
Horne said. “As soon as you get to subtleties and a huge amount of data that we can gather today, there's going to be different interpretations available.
“I think that represents a sort of good modern way of looking at things and saying it's not an easy story.
“Things are changing and there's a lot more grey areas now.”
One example of recent discoveries which have helped researchers gain a better insight into Scandinavia's influences on Scotland was the discovery of a Viking cemetery at Carrick Golf Course in Loch Lomond in 2007.
Evidence of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, Bronze Age cremations, farming and craft activity, and more than 80 burials found beneath the present golf course helped paint the picture of a long period of ancient settlement at the site.
Pairing the findings of the Loch Lomond cemetery with the Galloway Hoard, Horne explained these historic discoveries over the last 20 years show that Viking influence isn’t just reserved for the north west of Scotland.
“These burials are still being discovered,” he said.
“They tell that the Vikings are not just in the traditional western islands, or are in the northern islands, but also in the western mainland of Scotland.
“They're also close to the main, the central belt now as well.”
Horne explained that the book explores areas like Dumbarton, the River Clyde, the River Leven, and Loch Lomond which all show some evidence of Scandinavian influence through Viking activity.
He went on to explain that the book also explores the relationship between Vikings and Scots saying, “Viking Scotland is maybe quite a bit later than we thought”.
Horne, who has been a historian and an archeologist for nearly 20 years, said that newer research shows a better understanding of the relationships and that Vikings lived with the population and squatted in their houses.
“It's not just like [Vikings] coming in, taking everything over, wiping everything out,” Horne said.
He added: “It's a bit more negotiation with Picts or Gaelic-speaking Scots.”
Research in the book indicates that Vikings in Scotland could have been in the country for up to 100 to 200 years later than previously thought.
One example of this research is by Horne who researched the historic economy and said that there is evidence of trading of silver which came from other countries, like Arabic coins, across Scotland and even signs of trading fish at an industrial level.
“The big changes that come in when the Vikings start, they bring in their kind of silver economy, a very particular type of silver economy, where it's this bullion economy where you're weighing cut up bits of silver.
“You're getting these Arabic coins or these dirhams that are coming through, Storr Rock has dirhams, Skaill Hoard in Orkney has got dirhams in it, and these have come through these super national, international, trade networks and you’re seeing Scotland is very closely connected.”
He added: “We're seeing all these economic connections and how that they're expressed either through silver that you find in hordes and single fines or later on you get middens with thousands, millions of fish bones in them, because there's sort of semi-industrial processing of fish that's used to pay taxes to Earls.
“And these Earls might be paying taxes to the Norwegian kingdom as well.”
Published by Edinburgh University Press you can find out more about The Viking Age in Scotland here.
