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Reading list for Orkney Archaeology

Books

(and other useful sources of information – prices may vary)

General and highly recommended to start with:

Rising Tides: The Loss of Coastal Heritage in Orkney, by Julie Gibson £15.00

Orkney – A Historical Guide by Caroline Wickham-Jones, £9.99

Monuments of Orkney: A Visitor’s Guide by Caroline Wickham-Jones, £8.99

Between the Wind and the Water: World Heritage Orkney by Caroline Wickham-Jones, £20.00

The New History of Orkney by William P. L. Thomson, £17.99

Ness of Brodgar Guide, £6.00 and available direct from the Ness of Brodgar Trust website: http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/

HMS Hampshire: a Century of Myths and Mysteries Unravelled by various, £25.00

All the above and many of the books below are available from www.orcadian.co.uk/shop

Mesolithic

Mesolithic Lives in Scotland by Graeme Warren 2005

ScARF ScARF Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Panel Report freely available on the web-site: http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/palaeolithic-mesolithic-panel-report  

Neolithic

The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. Research Agenda,  Downes, J, Foster S. M. and Wickham Jones C. R. 2005 (eds). Edinburgh: Historic Scotland. Downloadable from www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/orkneyresearch 

Dwelling among the monuments: An examination of the Neolithic village of Barnhouse, Maeshowe passage grave and surrounding monuments at Stenness, Orkney by Colin Richards, 2003, McDonald Institute Monographs.

Building the Great Stone Circles of the North, Colin Richards (ed.), 2014, Oxford: Windgather Press.

Between the Tomb and Cist, The funerary monuments of Crantit, Kewing and Nether Onstan by Beverly Ballin Smith.

Tomb of the Eagles: Death and Life in a Stone Age Tribe Hedges, J. 1990, New Amsterdam Books, £19.99.

Art and Architecture in Neolithic Orkney: Process, Temporality and Context by AntoniaThomas, 2016, Oxford: Archaeopress

ScARF Neolithic period Panel Report freely available on the web-site: http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/scarf-neolithic-panel-report

Bronze Age

Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland by Patrick Ashmore Batsford/Historic Scotland

ScARF Bronze Age Panel Report freely available on the web-site: http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/scarf-bronze-age-panel-report  

Iron Age

Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland by Ian Armit

Celtic Scotland Batsford/Historic Scotland by Ian Armit

Bu, Gurness and the Brochs of Orkney (three volumes) by John Hedges

ScARF Iron Age Panel Report freely available on the web-site: http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/iron-age-panel-report

Prehistoric general

The Prehistory of Orkney, Colin Renfrew, C. (ed.) ,1985, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.

Prehistoric Orkney by Anna Ritchie, Batsford/Historic Scotland: London.

Early Historic

Picts, Gaels and Scots 2014 (new edition) by Sally Foster Batsford/Historic Scotland

The Picts by Anna Ritchie, 1996 HMSO

ScARF Medieval Panel Report freely available on the web-site: http://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/medieval

Vikings

Orkneyinga Saga, Palsson H and Edwards P, 1981, Penguin Books, London.

The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic, Batey C E, Jesch J and Morris C D (eds) 1993, Edinburgh, 2nd Edn.

‘Orkney’s Things’ by Sarah Jane Gibbon in Things in the Viking World, O. Owen (ed), 2012, Shetland Amenity Trust, Lerwick, pp.80-93.

Later Medieval

Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World, Barrett, J. H. and Gibbon, S. J. (ed) (2015), Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 37, Maney Publishing.

 ‘The Church in the Orkney Earldom’ by Gibbon, S. J. (2012), in H. Þorláksson and Þ. B. Sigurðardóttir (eds) From Nature to Script Reykholt, Environment, Centre, and Manuscript Making, Snorrastofa, Reykholt, pp.165-184.

Modern and Wartime

(There are a wealth of books, too numerous to list here, dealing with the later history of Orkney. While much of this history is told using written references, archaeology places an increasing large place. There is a good selection here: www.orcadian.co.uk/shop)

Orkney Land and People by William P. L Thompson, covering the period from the Viking age to the 20th century, Orkney Land and People focuses on the day-to-day life of ordinary Orcadian folk.

Websites about Archaeology in Orkney

UHI Archaeology Institute at Orkney College runs a Master in Archaeological Practice, a Masters in Archaeological Studies and BA (Hons) degree courses in Archaeology, Scottish History and Archaeology, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, and Archaeology and Cultural Studies.

Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology – provides commercial and research archaeological services.

Orkneyjar – A wonderful source for information about the ancient history, folklore and traditions of Orkney. Includes the daily Ness of Brodgar excavation Blog during the excavation season.

The ‘Thing’ Project – Northern Periphery Programme ‘Thing’ site, the Viking Cradle of Democracy very relevant to understanding Viking Orkney  with a programme of Free public lectures.

Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership – A site packed with information on the unique heritage to be found in around the waters surrounding Orkney’s southern isles.

Tomb of The Eagles, Orkney – The Tomb of the Eagles, or Isbister Chambered Cairn, 5000 year old stone age tomb, South Ronaldsay, Orkney.

Other resources

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