Echoes of Native–Norse Relationships in the Archaeology at St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland

Abstract

Excavations at the chapel and burial ground on St Ninians’s, Shetland have led to new analysis and re-examination of previous excavations at the site in the 1950s. Original interpretations of violent Viking incursions into the site around 800 have been re-evaluated, and instead there is a strong argument for continuity as seen in the excavated evidence. St Ninian’s Isle sits in an area that is rich in Pictish culture and early Christian sculpture, the early church building on the site itself being the location for the deposition of a hoard of Pictish silverware. Throughout seismic changes in belief and culture, the site continued to be considered a site of sacred importance. The interment of long cist burials marked by cross-incised sculpture into a significant pagan burial site below the chapel, suggests the site was already considered sacred prior to the arrival of Christianity, and subsequent interments of tenth-century, demonstrably Norse, Christian burials accentuate a continued loyalty to the site.