Norse Meeting Place Investigated in Scotland

News October 3, 2017

(Caithness Broch Project)
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Scotland Things Va Broch
(Caithness Broch Project)

 

THURSO, SCOTLAND—A geophysical survey may have detected evidence of a medieval Norse parliament meeting place in the Scottish Highlands, according to a report from BBC News. The survey of Thing’s Va Broch, which was carried out by researchers from the Orkney Research Center for Archaeology, the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, and the Caithness Broch Project, detected “faint features” that may relate to activity associated with the meetings. Thing’s Va, which is the site of an Iron Age broch, or stone-built roundhouse, derives its name from “ting,” the Norse word for meeting place. Archaeologists will undertake exploratory excavations this month to try to learn more about the site. For more on archaeology in Scotland, go to “Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart.”

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