The Use of Space in Norse Houses: Some Observations from the Hebrides

• Main Author: Sharples, Niall
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh University Press 2023
• Subjects: Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474485821.003.0006

This chapter discusses the excavation of three high-status Norse houses spanning the late 9 th to the early 14 th centuries from a large settlement mound at Bornais in South Uist in the Western Isles. The exceptional quality of preservation seen at the site has allowed a tight chronology determined by the acquisition of large assemblages of radiocarbon dates and material culture. House 1 is shown to have been built in the late 9 th /early 10 th century, and used until the middle of the 11 th century, House 2 built in the second half of the 11 th century and abounded early in the 12 th century, and House 3 built in the middle of the 13 th century and abandoned as late as the early 14 th century. A study of the social position of female slaves in houses from Iceland and the Hebrides is also made possible through analysis of artefact distributions and the location of cooking areas, and spatial relationship of the hearth and entrance in the houses. Overall, it is demonstrated that whilst there are similarities between the longhouses in the Scandinavian territories of the North Atlantic, there are significant differences in their social management and organisation.