2. ROUSAY
Inherited Landscapes, Coastal Erosion &
Sustainability
Ruth Maher, PhD., Adjunct Lecturer William Paterson University
Julie Bond, PhD. , Senior Lecturer, Bradford University
Steve Dockrill, Senior Lecturer, Bradford University

3. First Goal: Community Archaeology
Creating a Vested Interest in the Past
– Kids Programs
– Visitor Days
– Established Tour Guides
– Guest Book
– Community Meet & Greets

4. Second Goal: Undergraduate &
Graduate Education
Student Outcomes
• To learn archaeological techniques and
teamwork
• To understand and incorporate scientific
methods of data collection
• To apply that knowledge to overall
research project
• To study (and experience) the effects of
Coastal Erosion and Climate Change

5. Third Goal: Scientific Research
– Human Interactions with the
Landscape
– Impacts of Coastal Erosion &
Climate Change
– Secrets to a Sustainable
Future

8. Background of The Orkneys
• 5000+ years of agricultural success
– With subsistence fishing, of course
• a/k/a “The Heart of the Neolithic”
– Quite a strong showing of brochs too
• Windy, temperate climate
• Salty winds and sprays attributed to healthy
agricultural conditions and healthy animals

9. Rousay Archaeology

10. Neolithic: 3,700 ‐ 2,200 BCE

11. Neolithic Settlement: Rinyo
Excavated in 1938 and 1946
Stone tools and Unstan Ware
long slabs separating spaces

12. Neolithic Period Space

13. Maes Howe Chambered Tomb

14. Bronze Age: 2,200 – 700 BCE

15. Burnt Mound: Excavated 2009

16. Bronze Period Space

17. Iron Age: 700 BCE – AD 400

18. Mousa Broch, Shetland

19. Iron Age Space

20. Viking/Norse 800‐1200

21. Research at Swandro
Rousay provides the opportunity to study the resilience of an island
community to climatic and environmental change from the Neolithic to
the modern day.
Coastal Erosion is an unavoidable issue and research is targeting
vulnerable sites with very limited life spans in terms of survival but with
multi‐period occupation sequences.

22. Current Research
• Focus – Swandro • Test Pits
• Norse Hall adjacent to • Survey
other remains • Auguring
• Broch? • Excavation
– Maybe still…
• Neolithic Chambered Tomb
– 5000 years continuous use

23. Test Pits in Surrounding Fields
Midhowe Broch, 2010 Swandro, 2011

24. Deep Time Agricultural Soils
• Throughout fields,
substantial evidence
long‐term agricultural
activity

25. • Two early trenches
Landscape Model • GIS interpolated surface reveals overall
characteristics of mound
• 2011 Excavation
– Revealed a “Broch”

26. 2012 Revealed a Chambered Tomb

27. Could there have been more?
Compiled by Mark Littlewood

28. Well‐Constructed
Feature Coming
Through…

29. Area D • Series of wall features
• Perpendicular to the sea
• At similar level (and
below) nearby Norse Hall

30. Climate: Past & Future
• The Mid‐Holocene saw • We are back to levels we saw
substantial changes in 2000 years ago
atmospheric and ocean • Understanding the Sociocultural
circulation patterns. changes and adaptations will
• In the North Atlantic, help us in the future
sediment cores suggest sea
surface temperatures
warmed between 8000 &
5000 ka
• We see increasing
temperatures out of the
Bronze Age increasing
through the Viking Age

31. Race Against Time

34. Potential on Rousay
• We already see long‐term occupation at Swandro
from the Neolithic through Norse periods.
• As work continues, we have the opportunity to
study all details of this sequence (before the sea
swallows it up) providing the opportunity to
– Create models which will lead us to a more complete
occupation and use of landscape in Rousay and the
Orkneys
– Create models of past adaptations to climate change,
both abrupt and gradual as well as effective and
ineffective approaches
– Prepare for wherever the future takes us