• Spinning weights were nearly always plain. This rare example is one of the most decorative ever found.
  • Polished felsite knives were valued posessions in the stone age. They are unique to Shetland.
  • Most archaeological finds are bulk finds from excavations. Only the best material is on display.

Archaeology

Shetland’s archaeology is relatively recent – discoveries span from Neolithic (4000 B.C.) through Iron Age and Viking into Medieval (A.D. 1500) The collection consists of site excavations and stray finds. It takes in all elements, from domestic, farming, fishing, religious. Most are routine everyday objects, showing that Shetland was never a centre of power and wealth.

Early excavation finds are outwith Shetland, but we hold everything excavated since the 1960s. Sites include Scord of Brouster (Neolithic houses), Clickamin (Iron Age broch), and Kebister (16th century tithe barn). Excavation assemblages mostly comprise duplicates of other material, such as pottery, hammerstones, ploughshares, loomweights and spinning whorls. However, most digs encompass objects seldom found otherwise in Shetland. These include Roman glass (Clickimin), Celtic altars (Papil), painted pebbles (Upper Scalloway) and a Norse millstone (Underhoull).

We have many stray finds, found by chance, either through cultivation or house excavation works, and most aren’t from site contexts. Some of our best finds have been discovered in this way, such as polished Neolithic knives and even Pictish symbol stones. Stray finds are usually found by non-archaeologists with a keen eye, e.g. a Stone Age burial urn found by schoolchildren. Many stray finds are hard to precisely date, because objects continued in use for thousands of years; a loomweight may be 2000 or 200 years old.

Archaeology covers assemblages from marine sites, primarily 17th and 18th century Dutch and Scandinavian vessels. Artefacts include coins, trade items, weaponry and fragments of ships’ timbers.