Archæological Excavations in Shetland

Abstract

MR. A. O. CURLE gave an interesting account to Section H (Anthropology) at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association on the excavation conducted by him during the past four years in Shetland. A low promontory projecting into the Voe which lies sheltered behind the lofty promontory of Sumburgh Head, the most southerly point of Shet land, bears on its crest the ruin of a late sixteenth century dwelling house, to which Sir Walter Scott in “The Pirate” gave the name of “Jarlshof”. Be neath and all around this ruin lie numerous remains of ancient dwellings, ranging from before the Bronze Age reached Shetland in the latest phase of that culture, through the period of the brochs and their secondary buildings, to the coming of the Norsemen in the ninth or tenth century and even later, for relics found in the vicinity of foundations exposed last summer indicated for them a fifteenth or six teenth century date.