Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Paleoethnobotanical Study of Economic Change (c. AD 900-1400) at Quoygrew Farm, Orkney, Scotland.

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Gayle J. Fritz, Catrina Adams will study carbonized plant remains from the transitional Viking Age/Medieval farm site of Quoygrew (900AD -1400AD). Quoygrew is located on Westray, in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland. Quoygrew is an important site because of its position on the periphery of two states, Norway and Scotland, which formed during the Viking/Medieval period. State formation was accompanied by changes in population size, shifts in religious ideology, and economic changes, including increases in surplus production and the beginnings of a market economy. It is important to understand how the process of state formation in Norway and Scotland affected those living and working in more peripheral areas with strong connections to these nascent states. Adams' analyses will help to determine how life changed at Quoygrew during this important transition period. Paleoethnobotany, the archaeological study of plant remains, is an important way to understand the everyday lives of people who lived at Quoygrew, and the economic decisions made there. Production of plants was important to farmers at Quoygrew, providing members of a household with plant foods, but also allowing them to participate in larger economic systems through production of a surplus. Ms Adams will analyze residues from crop production activities to determine changes in land use, production strategies, and labor involvement over time. Consumption practices are also important, because plant foods and diet can be good indicators of status, and control of exotic or ideologically important foods is an important way leaders can gain or maintain political power over followers. In addition, diet is an important way of identifying members of a group. Adoption of new food items or refusal to adopt these items may have been involved in the formation of a group identity among Orcadians. Adams will identify seeds from exotic plants as well as malted barley (used in beer) and track their distribution across the site over time. Understanding decisions made about plant production and consumption at Quoygrew helps anthropologists learn how people living in peripheries of states react to changing pressures on their ways of life. This project will also have a broader impact by shedding light on modern processes of globalization. As trade networks widen, local economic decisions are increasingly influenced by fluctuations in demand for local products based on non-local conditions. How local producers make economic decisions in response to economic pressures from distant areas is a relevant question for today's increasingly global market. In addition, data from the project will be used to inform an exhibit and reconstruction of the site, which will increase public awareness of the site as well as increasing the public's understanding of methods archaeologists use to explore the past. The results of this study will be published in a site report, in refereed journals, and the raw data from the analysis will be available online to encourage its use by the scientific community. Finally, the author will gain specialized training in paleoethnobotany, which will prepare her for further work in the region.