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Dr
Niall
Sharples
School of History and Archaeology (Archaeology Section)
Cardiff University
PO Box 909
Cardiff
CF1 3XU
Wales
Tel: 01222 874929
This excavation was important for understanding the Early Historic Settlement of the Northern Isles. The 1989-90 excavations took place on a ridge overlooking Scalloway on Shetland. They revealed a pattern of intense activity since the 1st century BC, and prior evidence of a cremation burial, probably Bronze Age.
Successive phases of occupation were identified into the medieval period, including a broch occupied up to the 8th century, which seems to have been a mixed farming community which practised metalwork. No Viking settlement was found on site, but finds suggest one to have been situated nearby. A shortlived cemetery, probably medieval, and the 17th-century site which continues in use today complete the picture.