Portmahomack On Tarbat Ness 2016: Changing Ideologies In North-east Scotland, Sixth To Sixteenth Century Ad

Drawing on contributions to the field investigation and record by Fred Geddes, Jill Harden, Madeleine Hummler, Martin Jones, Annette Roe and Nicky Toop; and to the post-excavation analysis from Steve Allen, Steve Ashby, Mark Blackburn, Lawrence Butler, Ewan Campbell, Shirley Curtis-Summers, Claire Ellis, Ian Freestone, Allan Hall, Derek Hall, Mark Hall, Derek Hamilton, Mhairi Hastie, Andy Heald, George Haggarty, Tim Holden, Matilda Holmes, Nick Holmes, Fraser Hunter, Richard Jackson, Harry Kenward, Sarah King, Monica Maleszka-Ritchie, Kellie Meyer, Janet Montgomery, Catherine Mortimer, Anthony Newton, James Peake, Nigel Ruckley, Krish Seetah, Clare Thomas, Nicky Toop, Lauren Walther, Becca Walters, Penelope Walton Rogers and Hugh Willmott. Portmahomack on the Tarbat peninsula overlooking the Dornoch Firth is a fishing village with a 1,500-year-old history. In the sixth and seventh century it was a high-ranking centre with monumental cist burials and links to the equestrian class in England. In the eighth century it was a monastery, creating manuscripts and making church vessels and a stunning repertoire of carved stone monuments, its monks looking to Ireland, western Scotland and Northern England for their intellectual alliances. Around 800 AD the monastery came to an end following a Viking raid, but swiftly revived as a manufacturing and trading centre, now serving the protagonists of the Norse-Scottish wars. By the eleventh century the site was abandoned, but was remembered again in the early twelfth century when it became the parish church of St Colman. In the later middle ages it experienced an upsurge of activity with fishermen and metalsmiths settling beside an enlarged community church. When the Reformation arrived at Portmahomack about 1600, the village moved to the harbour and the old church of St Colman remained on its own, acting for another four hundred years as a weathervane of local society and its beliefs. Rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1980s, from 1994 to 2007 the site at Portmahomack saw one of the largest research excavations to have taken place in Scotland. Acknowledgements List of illustrations List of illustrations in the Digest of Evidence List of Tables Summary Guide to the archaeological terms and abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction Research incentives Research procedure Opportunity: The Tarbat Discovery Programme Results of the fieldwork Publication strategy Changes from earlier publications Overview Chapter 2 Principles Reconnaissance stage Evaluation stage Project design Implementation of the programme Investigations on the peninsula Exploration of the Firthlands Design for analysis and publication Chapter 3 Introduction Chronology Excavation sequences by sector Assemblage Survey on the Peninsula (Illus 3.27) Chronological concordance between sectors Chapter 4 Introduction Period 0 to the sixth century AD Period 1 mid-sixth to later seventh century The cemetery The settlement Assemblage from the settlement Cultivation and settlement in Sector 1 The end of the Period 1 settlement The Peninsula and the Firthlands in Prehistory Chapter 5 Introduction and Summary The Monastic Cemetery Early Medieval Memorials Repertoire of Ornament Reassembling the Portmahomack monuments Some conclusions Evidence for a Stone Church Infrastructure The Northern Workshops The Southern Workshops Economy Architecture of the Bag-shaped Buildings The Peninsula The Raid Chapter 6 Introduction Redevelopment in Sector 2 Metal- and glassworkers Redevelopment in Sector 1: the farmers Archaeological story: ninth to eleventh century Context: the peninsula and the Firthlands Chapter 7 Introduction The church from the twelfth to the sixteenth century Medieval people: the burials The village (thirteenth to fourteenth century) The township and its industries, fifteenth to sixteenth century Discussion – a context for Medieval Tarbat Post-Medieval Tarbat: St Colman’s Church from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century Chapter 8 Introduction Mobility Prehistoric to Pictish transitions From family estate to monastery Monastic origins The politics of monasticism in Europe The return of commercial imperatives Reformation and after Envoi References Digest of Evidence Contents of the Digest of Evidence ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS AT PORTMAHOMACK INDEX OF PERIODS, STRUCTURES AND CHURCHES RADIOCARBON DATES BURIALS CATALOGUE OF SCULPTURE CATALOGUE OF DIAGNOSTIC ARTEFACTS ECOLOGY MONUMENTS AND PLACENAMES ON THE TARBAT PENINSULA TABLE OF CONTENTS OF ONLINE ARCHIVE INDEX Between 1994 and 2007, the University of York, Highland Council and Tarbat Historic Trust undertook a programme of archaeological research on the Tarbat peninsula in Easter Ross in pursuit of the origins and development of the northern kingdom of the Picts. Investigations focused on the church of St. Colman in Portmahomack. Excavations established that a monastery established in the vicinity of the church in the seventh century was a centre for vellum preparation, fine metal-working, and the making of ornamental sculpture. The monastery appears to have been burnt down between 780 and 810, and shortly afterwards its stone monuments were broken up and scattered over the site. Martin Carver, Justin Garner-lahire And Cecily Spall ; Drawing On Contributions To The Field Investigation And Record By Fred Geddes [and 5 Others] ; And To The Post-excavation Analysis From Steve Allen [and 35 Others]. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.