This morning we disembarked and took our coaches to the archaeological site of Jarlshof. The skies were azure blue and the temperature about 55 Fahrenheit. A great day for archaeology. Jarlshof is the most extensively investigated and published site of Scandinavian archaeology in the Northern Isles. It sits on an exposed headland of Sunberg Head at the southern tip of the largest island of the Shetlands. The winds rush across the north Atlantic unimpeded. Winds bearing fine sand had over the millennia covered the Neolithic settlement. At the end of the 19th century a massive storm and high winds tore the turf off the tops of these now subterranean homes.
Scientific archaeology began on this site in 1924 and continued through 1950, save a few years due to the war. Today we are able to study a site that shows continuous human habitation from the early Bronze Age through the 16th century. Imagine the homes we were viewing were being constructed at approximately the same time as the great pyramids of Egypt. When the site was excavated there was no effort made to arrange artifacts. The photo that accompanies this description shows the low remains of one of the Viking farm homes. The Viking settlement dates from 850 and they remained on this site until c. 1300. They created a sophisticated culture and traded extensively as far distant as the Mediterranean.
