NORSE CODE

A large Norse hall has been discovered during excavations at Skaill Farmstead, on the island of Rousay, Orkney. The hall is thought to date from the 10th to 12th centuries AD and was discovered below a more recent farmstead. The excavation is part of the ‘Landscapes of Change – Archaeologies of the Rousay Clearances and Westness Estate’ project. Finds so far have included steatite (soap stone from Shetland), pottery and a bone spindle whorl. A fragment of a Norse bone comb was also found.