Colonialism, Continuity and Change (2020) (2025)

The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World. Survival, Continuity and Change . Edited by alexander fenton and Hermann Palsson. 347 pp., 91 figs., John Donald Ltd, Edinburgh, £20.00

Glasgow Archaeological Journal, 1984

The Archaeology of Colonialism in Medieval Ireland: Shifting Patterns of Domination and Acculturation

"This project examines Scandinavian and Anglo-Norman colonialism in two Irish case study regions, the south-east and the mid-west, by placing them on a continuum of social development. It analyses their spatial organisation and their impact on the landscape in terms of a model of colonialism based on three sub-phases: expansion, consolidation and domination. Campaign fortresses and other bridgeheads in the landscape such as the longphort and the ringwork largely belong to this phase. Mottes and Scandinavian urban settlement belong largely to the consolidation phase. The Anglo-Norman domination phase was characterised by a hierarchical configuration of monuments, including those forms already mentioned, along with masonry castles, nucleated and dispersed rural settlement and continental religious houses. They differed in a number of respects. Scandinavian colonialism was much more geographically limited, largely confined to a series of estuarine settlements which became towns over time, with possible accompanying hinterland settlement. It cannot be said to have had a domination sub-phase, rather it experienced a phase of incorporation, where the settlements came under the control of elements of the Gaelic elite. It has therefore been categorised here as non-imperial opportunistic colonialism. In contrast to the elite replacement colonialism found in Anglo-Norman Ulster and Norman England, Anglo-Norman colonialism in the case-studies was totalising, characterised by plantation colonialism, which involved the inward movement of several orders of society, and the incorporation or displacement of native groups. It involved the total reorganisation of the landscape, with the introduction of several new monument forms in a hierarchical spatial organisation. However, this was largely unsuccessful in the mid-west, and can only be said to have been successful in the south-east, and even then only until the fourteenth century, at which time the colony receded substantially. Both groups continued to be regarded as foreign elements long after the apogee of each of colonial period. While colonial acculturation was limited, over time their culture came to differ both that of their home regions and Gaelic society, which saw them become a “third nation” living in a “third space” (cf. Bhabha 1994). This was due to a combination of creolisation and hybridisation. There seems to have been extensive Gaelic acculturation in the areas of greatest contact, such as the towns in each period. Copyright, Russell Ó Ríagáin, 2010."

From Goill to Gall-Ghàidheil: Scandinavian settlement in Bute

2012

Settlement in north-west Europe: an overview

I.A.G. Shepherd & G.J. Barclay (eds) 2004 Scotland in Ancient Europe. The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Scotland in their European context, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 115-124.

Studies on the Early Settlement of Scotland and Ireland

Quaternary International, 1998

The Scale and Impact of Viking Settlement in Northumbria

Medieval Archaeology, 2018

The Beginning of Scandinavian Settlement in England: The Viking ‘Great Army’ and Early Settlers, c. 865–900 by Shane McLeod

Parergon, 2014

A Viking-age maritime haven: a reassessment of the island settlement at Beginish, Co. Kerry

Journal of Irish Archaeology 10, 2001

Later Prehistoric and Early Historic Settlement Archaeology of the Western Seaways: A Study of the Western Settlement Record from Shetland to Brittany …

PhD Thesis, 2000

Detailed scrutiny of the Iron Age settlement archaeology of the Atlantic coastal regions, from Shetland in the north to Brittany in the south, highlights the close connections made possible by the Western Seaways. From the Later Prehistoric to Early Historic periods these lands have been drawn towards similar expressions of identity and sequences of settlement development of varying intensity and duration. Discussions of individual site chronologies and taphonomic problems combined with analysis of architecture, site layout and, to a lesser extent, material assemblages across the area has allowed the definition of settlement development in each area across almost two thousand years. The Atlantic west offers a unique environment for the investigation of complex issues relating to settlement patterning as a result of its often remarkable archaeological preservation. These frameworks provide the opportunity to examine the extent of contacts along the Western Seaways in greater detail and over a longer timespan than has previously been attempted. Some site-types have always been used to infer connections between western areas as distant as Brittany and Shetland including 'promontory forts' and 'souterrains'. By putting these into their local settlement and chronological context it becomes possible to interrogate their significance from particular economic, political and social perspectives, both as indicators of external contact and their place in local settlement patterns. Conclusions range from the definition of new local settlement sequences and discussions of their social significance, to a greater understanding of the importance of the Atlantic Seaways as conduits of trade, information and cultural contact. The Atlantic façade is perceived, not as a peripheral backwater, but as a zone characterised by a dynamic society with powerful and wide reaching influences. Dramatic and important settlement developments in this area could shed light on the processes of social 'construction' that lead ultimately to the incipient kingdoms and states visible even today.

Vikings in the British Isles: The Place-Name Evidence

Acta Archaeologica, 2000