Discovery of 26 skeletons in front garden
● Bones found after homeowner began digging to build shed for children’s bikes
The discovery of 26 skeletons in a front garden in Shetland is set to shed new light on ancient life in Scotland’s most northerly isles.
The human remains, which were likely laid to rest around 500 to 600 years ago, were found in Upper Scalloway on the Shetland mainland after a homeowner started digging to build a shed for his children’s bikes.
The medieval burials took place on land which once formed part of an Iron Age village and centred around a broch, or a large stone tower.
As well as the skeletons, archaeologists discovered a number of Pictish-era finds at the site, including painted pebbles and a bone comb, indicating that it was occupied some 600 years before the Iron Age settlement took shape.
Dr Val Turner, Shetland Regional Archaeologist, said the remains could shed new light on life in Shetland through time, with advances in archaeological science able to deliver new details on population origins and movement.
Dr Turner said: “The skeletons could tell us a lot about 14th or 15th century population of Shetland.
“It is assumed that a lot of people in Shetland were Vikings so it will be interesting to see if that is the case with these skeletons, or if it is more of a mixed picture.
“We hope to find out culturally where these people were linked to and they could give us more information on where people in Shetland at that time were linked to.
“There is potentially a lot to find here on origins and where these people were born and brought up.”
Vikings invaded Shetland around 800AD and by that time the islands, like large parts of the mainland, were part of Pictish culture.
Evidence of an Iron Age settlement at Upper Scalloway was first discovered around 30 years ago with skeletons then later reburied in a nearby churchyard.
Dr Turner said: “At the end of the 1980s, when they were putting in foundations for new houses, they came across the Iron Age broch and the remains of a Pictish House, as well as skeletons. Where we have found the latest skeletons was then under private ownership and wasn’t excavated, until now.”
The new finds give archaeologists a fresh opportunity to investigate Shetland’s population given advances in technology, such as mineral tests on teeth which can indicate the properties - and geography - of drinking water consumed at a young age.
Archaeologists working at Upper Scalloway found the human remains buried in relatively shallow ground with it unusual for such skeletons to survive in Shetland given the soil conditions. It is understood that the skeletons found last month were aligned in north/south formation with Christian graves normally sitting east to west.
Dr Turner added: “I imagine the burial site would be part of a wider township and the reason they chose to bury there was because the ground was so stony and not suitable for agriculture, for example.
“There is a bit of a pattern of medieval burials on top of broch sites in both Orkney and Shetland.
“It is unusual that the skeletons were laid out north to south. It is something we will be looking at now and at the moment, we don’t know what that means.”
“It is assumed that a lot of people in Shetland were Vikings so it will be interesting to see if that is the case with these skeletons”
DR VAL TURNER