Jarlshof

A settlement site at the southern tip of the Shetland Island, Scotland, with a settlement from the early 2nd millennium BC. This early occupation was a Late Neolithic village comparable to Skara Brae and it was followed after an interval by oval houses of the Late Bronze Age, a round house and wheelhouse with Souterrain of the Iron Age, a Viking settlement, and continuous occupation throughout the Dark Ages. It was named after a house in a Sir Walter Scott novel. Some of the most interesting artifacts recovered from the Norse levels are a series of slates incised with drawings of animals and abstract decorations.

A coastal settlement on the island of Shetland, and one of the richest and most complex archaeological sites in Britain. Stone buildings date to the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age periods and show continuous occupation throughout the Dark Ages. During the 9th century Jarlshof was settled by a small group of Norse farmers. Excavations carried out in the 1930s by Gordon Childe and continued in the 1950s revealed a complex of levels and many building phases overlying one another. It seems that some time in the 3rd and 4th century several of the Iron Age brochs and their courtyards were transformed into Celtic aisled wheelhouses accompanied by circular huts. In the 9th century these abandoned Celtic buildings were succeeded by the Norse settlement. Jarlshof is the most distinctive and convincing Viking village in Britain. The first farmhouse was a stone bow-shaped long house with two rooms including a kitchen with an oven and rectangular hearth. Slightly later another compartment was attached to the main dwelling-house to serve as a byre, while other farmhouses continued to be built in the same tradition. The archaeologists also found evidence of typical Viking industries such as soapstone, bone and metal working. Some of the most interesting artefacts recovered from the Norse levels are a series of slates incised with drawings of animals and interesting abstract decorations.