Shepherd, A. N., ed. (1999). The Biggings Papa Stour Shetland: the history and archaeology of a royal Norwegian farm. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

This chapter outlines the natural setting for Papa Stour, its location in Shetland and the environmental factors and features which dictate its nature as much today as in the past. There are separate sections on location, geology, climate, soils, vegetation and natural fauna.

The former presence of man is visible everywhere on Papa Stour. Prehistoric homesteads and enclosure lies uncovered across the landscape west of the Dyke Hill showing that far more of the island was under some sort of cultivation at a time of better climatic circumstances. Tumuli, burned mounds, a cremation cemetery, and a chambered cairn on Round Hill provide monumental archaeological evidence of prehistoric populations all over the island. A possible broch (Muckle Heogan) indicates Iron Age populations, as does the 'Erd House' (earth-house') recorded on older maps at Northouse, now completely eroded away. This chapter considers the historical and place-name evidence for settlement on the 'Papar' from before the Norse period right the way through to the 19th century.

This chapter describes how the location of the excavations was chosen, summarises the six seasons of excavation and the manner in which the trenches were laid out. There then follows a detailed archaeological description. The stratigraphy of the main site (east end) is separated into seven phases: phase 1 - earliest activity represented by pits and a stone alignment; phase 2 - the first wooden building, the dyngja; phase 3 - the new wooden building, the stofa; phase 4 - later use of the phase 3 stofa; phase 4-5 - pit construction within the stofa area; phase 5 - building of a new stone structure; phase 6 - 19th-century features and building of the croft-house, the gorl; phase 7 - modern features. In the western half of the main site seven phases of activity were identified: phase 2 - remnant structures: a skali (hall) and possible eldhus (cookhouse); phase 3 - further construction: a new eldhus and skali; phase 3-4 - pit construction and abandonment of phase 3 skali; phase 4 - construction of a new dwelling-house and ancillary building; phase 4-5 - further pit construction; phase 5 - further new construction, a re-aligned dwelling-house; phase 6 - final activities in the western area.

This section concerns the use of local resources for the manufacture of objects, tools, and equipment used in daily life at the Biggings, the material needed for the construction of the buildings, and imported goods. It also includes a range of objects and materials brought to the island which would have supplemented the limited local resources. Represented here are a broad range of goods which were imported from as far away as England, Scandinavia and the continent of Europe. Much of this chapter is concerned with exploring the evidence phase by phase to show a changing picture through time of the various activities and contacts experienced on Papa Stour. An overview is followed by specialist reports on a variety of artefacts: steatite vessels, bakestones and other objects; ceramics; other ceramic objects (clay pipe and tile), glass (vessels, beads and window glass), metal (copper alloy, silver, lead, iron, slag), stone (amber, coal and jet, flint, quartz, jasper, pumice, rhyolite); late Norse and medieval woodworking, wooden artefacts and products; textile, yarn and fibre; horn artefacts.

The final discussion attempts to draw some meaningful conclusions combining the results of two diverse approaches to the study of the past and to evaluate the how successful the project has been in combining these two sources into a coherent study of the medieval and early modern communities living and farming at the Biggings. The important contribution of the environmental and artefactual material is also considered.

This study of a royal Norwegian farm on the Shetland island of Papa Stour was inspired by a document of 1299 recording the meeting between a Norwegian royal official and a woman who had accused him of treachery to his royal master. Place-name evidence suggested that the building where this meeting took place (described as the 'stofa', a log-timbered house imported from Norway) was most probably located at the Biggings, on the east of the island. Excavations there between 1977 and 1990 uncovered evidence for a succession of buildings, amongst them a timber-built structure whose style and dating identified it as the 'stofa' of the 1299 document. This volume details this and the other structures preserved on the site as well as the range of artefacts, including wood and textiles, pottery and steatite vessels, and the micro- and macro-botanical material. it places the archaeological evidence from the site against the background of the changing political and economic history of Shetland in its Norwegian, Hanseatic and Scottish phases, providing an insight into the story of this enduring community from its high-status moment as an important centre of Norwegian administration through to its 19th-century decline and survival into the present day.