Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:01:45.799Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identity, Gender, Religion and Economy: New Isotope and Radiocarbon Evidence for Marine Resource Intensification in Early Historic Orkney, Scotland, UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

James H. Barrett  and
Michael P. Richards
James H. Barrett*
Affiliation:
University of York, UK
Michael P. Richards*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, and University of Durham, UK
*
[email: jhb5@york.ac.uk]
[email: richards@eva.mpg.de]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Stable isotope measurements and radiocarbon dates on 54 burials from northern Scotland document trends in marine protein consumption from the late Iron Age to the end of the Middle Ages. They illuminate how local environmental and cultural contingencies interrelated with a pan-European trend towards more intensive fishing around the end of the first millennium AD. Little use was made of marine foods in late Iron Age Orkney despite its maritime setting. Significant fish consumption appeared in the Viking Age (ninth to eleventh centuries AD), first in the case of some men buried with grave-goods of Scandinavian style but soon among both sexes in ‘Christian’ burials. There was then a peak in marine protein consumption from approximately the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries AD, particularly among men, after which the importance of fish-eating returned to Viking Age levels. The causes of these developments probably entailed a complex relationship between ethnicity, gender, Christian fasting practices, population growth, long-range fish trade and environmental change.

Les analyses par isotopes stables et les données radiocarbones de 54 inhumations de l'Écosse du Nord indiquent l'évolution de la consommation de protéines marines de la fin de l'Âge du Fer jusqu'à la fin du Moyen Âge, et montrent comment une tendance paneuropéenne envers une pêche plus intensive vers la fin du premier millénaire ap. J-C est étroitement liée aux influences environnementales et culturelles locales. Malgré sa situation maritime, on n'avait guère recours à une alimentation marine à Orkney pendant l'âge du fer récent. La consommation de poisson devenait significative pendant l'Âge des Vikings (9e–11e siècle ap. J-C), comme on peut le constater d'abord dans les sépultures de plusieurs hommes enterrés avec du mobilier funéraire de style scandinave, mais bientôt également dans des tombes ‘chrétiennes’ des deux sexes. La consommation de protéines marines atteignit son plus haut niveau, notamment parmi les hommes, du 11e au 14e siècle environ, tandis que par la suite l'importance de la consommation de poisson retomba au niveau atteint pendant l'Âge des Vikings. Ces développements ont probablement été causés par des relations complexes entre ethnicité, sexe, pratique chrétienne du jeûne, croissance de la population, commerce de poissons à longue portée et changements environnementaux.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Messungen stabiler Isotope und Radiokarbondaten von 54 Bestattungen aus dem nördlichen Schottland dokumentieren Trends in der Konsumption marinen Proteins von der späten Eisenzeit bis zum Ende des Mittelalters. Sie werfen ein Licht darauf, wie der lokale Beitrag von Unwelt und Kultur mit den pan-europäischen Trends zu einer Intensivierung des Fischfangs am Ende des ersten Jahrtausends AD zusammenhing. In der späten Eisenzeit wurden marine Nahrungsmittel auf den Orkney-Inseln – trotz ihrer maritimen Lage – nur in geringen Umfang genutzt. Eine signifikante Verwendung von Fisch lässt sich erst für die Wikingerzeit (9.–11. Jahrhundert AD) nachweisen: anfangs im Fall einiger Männer, die mit Grabbeigaben in skandinavischem Stil bestattet wurden, doch bald auch bei „christlichen” Gräbern beiderlei Geschlechter. Vom 11. bis zum 14. Jahrhundert lässt sich dann ein Höhepunkt in der Nutzung von marinem Protein, besonders bei männlichen Individuen, festhalten. Danach geht die Bedeutung des Verzehrs von Fisch auf das Niveau der Wikingerzeit zurück. Die Gründe dieser Entwicklungen liegen möglicherweise in der komplexen Beziehung zwischen kultureller Zugehörigkeit, Gender, christlichen Fastenpraktiken, Bevölkerungswachstum, dem Fischhandel über lange Strecken und in Veränderungen der Umwelt.

Keywords

dietethnicityfish tradegenderIron AgeMiddle AgesOrkneyScotlandstable isotopesViking AgealimentationÂge du FerÂge des VikingsMoyen Âgeisotopes stablesOrkneyEcossecommerce du poissonethnicitésexeNahrungEisenzeitWikingerzeitMittelalterstabile IsotopeOrkney-InselnSchottlandFischhandelkulturelle ZugehörigkeitGender
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , 2004 , pp. 249 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Sage Publications 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrose, S.H., 1990. Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17:431–451.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H. and Norr, L., 1993. Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate. In Lambert, J.B. and Grupe, G. (eds), Prehistoric Human Bone: Archaeology at the Molecular Level: 1–37. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S.H., Butler, B.M., Hanson, D.B., Hunter-Anderson, R.L. and Krueger, H.W., 1997. Stable isotopic analysis of human diet in the Marianas archipelago, Western Pacific. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 104:343–362.3.0.CO;2-W>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arneborg, J., Heinemeier, J., Lynnerup, N., Nielsen, H.L., Rud, N. and Sveinbjornsdóttir, A.E., 1999. Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and 14C dating of their bones. Radiocarbon 141:157–168.Google Scholar
Ascough, P. L., Cook, G.T., Dugmore, A.J., Barber, J., Higney, E. and Scott, E.M., 2004. Holocence variations in the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect. Radiocarbon 46:1–10.Google Scholar
Barber, K.E., Chambers, F.M. and Maddy, D., 2003. Holocene palaeoclimates from peat stratigraphy: macrofossil proxy climate records from three oceanic raised bogs in England and Ireland. Quaternary Science Reviews 22:521–539.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., 1997. Fish trade in Norse Orkney and Caithness: a zooarchaeological approach. Antiquity 71:616–638.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., 2002. Christian and pagan practice during the conversion of Viking Age Orkney and Shetland. In Carver, M. (ed.), The Cross Goes North: 207–226. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J.H., 2003. Culture contact in Viking Age Scotland. In Barrett, J.H. (ed.), Contact, Continuity and Collapse: the Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic: 73–111. Turnhout: Brepols, Studies in the Early Middle Ages.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Nicholson, R.A. and Cerón-Carrasco, R., 1999. Archaeoichthyological evidence for long-term socioeconomic trends in northern Scotland: 3500 BC to AD 1500. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:353–388.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Beukens, R.P. and Brothwell, D.R., 2000a. Radiocarbon dating and marine reservoir correction of Viking Age Christian burials from Orkney. Antiquity 74:537–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J., Beukens, R., Simpson, I., Ashmore, P., Poaps, S. and Huntley, J., 2000b. What was the Viking Age and when did it happen? A view from Orkney. Norwegian Archaeological Review 33:1–39.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Beukens, R.P. and Nicholson, R.A., 2001. Diet and ethnicity during the Viking colonisation of northern Scotland: evidence from fish bones and stable carbon isotopes. Antiquity 75:145–154.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Locker, A.M. and Roberts, C.M., 2004a. ‘Dark Age Economics’ revisited: the English fish bone evidence AD 600–1600. Antiquity 78:618–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Locker, A.M. and Roberts, C.M., 2004b. The origins of intensive marine fishing in medieval Europe: the English evidence. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 271:2417–2421.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Shepherd Popescu, E., Beavan-Athfield, N., Bronk Ramsey, C., Cook, G.T. and Locker, A., 2004. The potential significance of dietary offsets for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates: an archaeologically significant example from medieval Norwich. Journal of Archaeological Science 31:563–575.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37:425–430.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., 2001. Development of the radiocarbon program OxCal. Radiocarbon 43:355–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brothwell, D., 1977. On a mycoform stone structure in Orkney, and its relevance to possible further interpretations of so-called souterrains. Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology 14:179–190.Google Scholar
Brothwell, D., Tills, D. and Muir, V., 1986. Biological characteristics. In Berry, R.J., and Firth, H.N. (eds), The People of Orkney: 54–88. Kirkwall: The Orkney Press.Google Scholar
Brown, T.A., Nelson, D.E. and Southon, J.R., 1988. Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30:171–177.Google Scholar
Cerón-Carrasco, R., 2002. Of fish and men, de iasg agus dhaoine: aspects of the utilization of marine resources as recovered from selected Hebridean archaeological sites. Unpublished : University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Chishow, B.S., Nelson, D.E. and Schwarcz, H.P., 1982. Stable-carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets. Science 216:1131–1132.Google Scholar
Christensen, P. and Nielssen, A.R., 1996. Norwegian Fisheries 1100–1970: main developments. In Holm, P., Starkey, D.J. and Thor, J. (eds), The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100–1976: National Perspectives on a Common Resource: 145–176. Esbjerg: North Atlantic Fisheries History Association.Google Scholar
Dahl-Jensen, D., Mosegaard, K., Gundestrup, N., Clow, G.D., Johnsen, S.J., Hansen, A.W. and Balling, N., 1998. Past temperatures directly from the Greenland ice sheet. Science 282:268–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deniro, M.J., 1985. Post-mortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to paleodietary reconstruction. Nature 317:806–809.Google Scholar
Dunwell, A.J., Cowie, T.G., Bruce, M.F., Neighbour, T. and Rees, A.R., 1995. A Viking Age cemetery at Cnip, Uig, Isle of Lewis. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 125:719–752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyer, C., 2002. Making a Living in the Middle Ages. London: Yale University Press. Enghoff, I.B., 1999. Fishing in the Baltic region from the 5th century BC to the 16th century AD: evidence from fish bones. Archaeofauna 8:41–85.Google Scholar
Enghoff, I.B., 2000. Fishing in the southern North Sea region from the 1st to the 16th century AD: evidence from fish bones. Archaeofauna 9:59–132.Google Scholar
Graham-Campbell, J. and Batey, C.E., 1998. Vikings in Scotland: an Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Harkness, D.D., 1983. The extent of natural 14C deficiency in the coastal environment of the United Kingdom. PACT 8:351–364.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., 2004. Isotopes and red herrings: comments on Milner et al. and Liden et al. Antiquity 78:34–37.Google Scholar
Johansen, O.S., Gulliksen, S. and Nydal, R., 1986. δ13C and diet: analysis of Norwegian human skeletons. Radiocarbon 28:754–761.Google Scholar
Kaland, S.H.H., 1996. En vikingtidsgård og -gravplass på Orknøyene. In Krøger, J.F. and Naley, H. (eds), Nordsjøen: Handel, Religion og Politikk: 63–68. Karmoy Kommune: Vikingfestivalen.Google Scholar
Katzenberg, M.A., 2000. Stable isotope analysis: a tool for studying past diet, demography and life history. In Katzenberg, M.A. and Saunders, S.R. (eds), The Biological Anthropology of the Human Skeleton: 305–327. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Kornexl, L., 1998. Benedictine Reform. In Szarmach, P.E., Tavormina, M.T. and Rosenthal, J.T. (eds), Medieval England: an Encyclopedia: 119–120. London: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Lowe, C., 2001. Newark. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (new series) 1:66.Google Scholar
Makowiecki, D., 2003. Historia Ryb I Rybolówstwa W Holocenie Na Nizu Polskim W Swietle Badan Archeoichtiologicznych. Poznan: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk.Google Scholar
Mays, S., 2000. New directions in the analysis of stable isotopes in excavated bones and teeth. In Cox, M. and Mays, S. (eds), Human Osteology: in Archaeology and Forensic Science: 425–438. London: Greenwich Medical Media.Google Scholar
Morris, C.D. and Emery, N., 1986. The chapel and enclosure on the Brough of Deerness, Orkney: survey and excavations, 1975–1977. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 116:301–374.Google Scholar
Owen, O. and Dalland, M., 1999. Scar: a Viking Boat Burial on Sanday, Orkney. Phantassie: Tuckwell Press.Google Scholar
Perdikaris, S., 1999. From chiefly provisioning to commercial fishery: long-term economic change in Arctic Norway. World Archaeology 30:388–402.Google Scholar
Powell, J., Powell, J., Low, D. and Gourlay, R. 1991. Balnakeil Bay Viking burial. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1991: 46.Google Scholar
Reimer, P. and Reimer, R., 2004. Marine Reservoir Correction Database. http://radiocarbon.pa.qub.ac.uk/marine/ (accessed on 8 April 2004).Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., McCormac, F.G., Moore, J., McCormick, F., and Murray, E.V., 2002. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections for the mid- to late Holocene in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic. The Holocene 12(2):129–135.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. and Hedges, R.E.M., 1999. Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine foods used by late Mesolithic humans at sites along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:717–722.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. and Mellars, P.A., 1998. Stable isotopes and the seasonality of the Oronsay middens. Antiquity 72:178–184.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Molleson, T.I. and Fuller, B.T., in press. Stable isotope palaeodietary studies of humans and fauna from the multi-period site of Newark Bay, Orkney. Journal of Archaeological Science.Google Scholar
Ritchie, A., 1985. Orkney in the Pictish kingdom. In Renfrew, C. (ed.), The Prehistory of Orkney: 183–209. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Sayers, W., 2002. Some fishy etymologies: Eng. Cod, Norse porskr, Du. Kabeljauw, Sp. Bacalao. NOWELE: North-Western European Language Evolution 41:17–30.Google Scholar
Schoeninger, M.J. and Deniro, M.J., 1984. Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of bone collagen from marine and terrestrial animals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48:625–639.Google Scholar
Sealy, J., 2001. Body tissue chemistry and palaeodiet. In Brothwell, D.R. and Pollard, A.M. (eds), Handbook of Archaeological Sciences: 269–279. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Sellevold, B.J., 1999. Picts and Vikings at Westness: Anthropological Investigations of the Skeletal Material from the Cemetery at Westness, Rousay, Orkney Islands. Oslo: NIKU (Scientific Report 010:1–62).Google Scholar
Simpson, I.A., 1997. Relict properties of anthropogenic deep top soils as indicators of infield management in Marwick, West Mainland, Orkney. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:365–380.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J. and Braziunas, T.F., 1998. High-precision radiocarbon age calibration for terrestrial and marine samples. Radiocarbon 40:1127–1151.Google Scholar
Thomson, W.P.L., 1984. Fifteenth-century depression in Orkney: the evidence of Lord Henry Sinclair's Rentals. In Crawford, B.E. (ed.), Essays in Shetland History: 125–142. Lerwick: The Shetland Times Ltd.Google Scholar
Thomson, W.P.L., 2001. The New History of Orkney. Edinburgh: Mercat Press.Google Scholar
Van Neer, W. and Ervynck, A., 2003. The late mediaeval heyday of the Flemish marine fishery: a fish-eye view. In Pieters, M., Verhaeghe, F., Gevaert, G., Mees, J. and Seys, J. (eds), Colloquium: Fishery, Trade and Piracy - Fishermen and Fishermen's Settlements in and around the North Sea Area in the Middle Ages and Later: 40–43. Oostende: Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium (Rapport 13).Google Scholar
Woolgar, C.M., 2000. ‘Take this penance now, and afterwards the fare will improve’: seafood and late medieval diet. In Starkey, D.J., Reid, C. and Ashcroft, N. (eds), England's Sea Fisheries: the Commercial Sea Fisheries of England and Wales since 1300: 36–44. London: Chatham.Google Scholar