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Vikings in the vegetable patch
After discovering pieces of Viking soapstone vessels in their vegetable patch, Nick and Lynn Boxall, owners of Fetlar General Stores, thought it might be worth calling in Time Team. As well as being attracted by the possibility of finding a Viking settlement, the Team was also intrigued by some of Fetlar's fascinating earthworks and rocky outcrops. One of them is called the 'Giant's Grave' and could be a Viking boat burial. Three days of digging on two sites is the only way to make sense of it all.
A handful of rivets
By midday on Day Two the settlement site has produced some evidence for a capped drain or underground passage but no foundations for buildings have been discovered yet. The Giant's Grave site has produced tonnes of rubble and a handful of rivets. The trenches are expanded and the evidence accumulates.
Bowl and brooch
By the end of the excavation the settlement site has revealed the foundations for a Viking house, flagstone floors and a huge steatite vessel. Further geophysics survey results indicate possible other houses leading down to the sea. At the Giant's Grave, accurate plotting of rivets has produced the outline of a boat. Evidence is found for a burial area within the boat, but also for an ancient robber trench: so any grave goods or human remains are lost. However, the icing on the cake is a fine Viking brooch missed by those earlier robbers. A successful Time Team excavation after which the people of Fetlar now have more evidence about their Norse forefathers.
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