WESTNESS, SCOTLAND—The Scotsman reports that archaeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a Viking ‘drinking hall’ at the nineteenth-century Skaill Farmstead on the island of Rousay. Dating to the tenth through twelfth centuries, the stone-walled building appears to be at least 43 feet long, and is oriented down a slope toward the sea. Stone benches line each side of the interior, a feature that bolsters the researchers' identification of its function. According to the Orkneyinga saga, a historical account of the Orkney Islands, Westness was home to Sigurd, a powerful Norse chieftain who ruled during the twelfth century. “We have recovered a millennium of middens which will allow us an unparalleled opportunity to look at changing dietary traditions, farming and fishing practices from the Norse period up until the 19th century,” said excavation co-director Ingrid Mainland of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Thus far, artifacts recovered include pottery, soapstone, a bone spindle whorl, and a fragment of a bone comb. To read about the Vikings’ arrival in Anglo-Saxon England, go to “The Viking Great Army.”
