DIGGING UP PAST IN SHETLANDS

Evening Star, Issue 22458, 1 October 1936, Page 13

DIGGING UP PAST IN SHETLANDS

Important archaeological discoveries have been made at Jarlshof, in the Shetlands, an island that is believed to have been a Sc r dinavian settlement before the Bronze Age. Many interesting objects have been unearthed, including some peculiarly shaped weights, a long narrow stone with a tree rune incised on it, a large knife-blade of iron, a pot cleek of bronze, fragments of crude vessels made of hard pottery, and small bronze sheets of scale formation. Articles older than the Bronze Age wore found under a deep bed of sand. These excavations have been carried out by the Ancient Monuments Commission. Investigations have also been made in Mousa Island by Dr Jan Petersen, director of the Museum at Stavanger, Norway. Mousa is regarded as one of the best preserved Teutonic fastnesses in Europe. It has a circular site, about 50 feet in diameter, and is built of middle-sized schistose stones firmly cemented together. Dr Petersen’s opinion of the discoveries at Jarlshof is that they point to a settlement resembling Viking dwellings iu Norway.