Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the Later Iron Age AD 300-800, 2003, 216 p. -

The volume of papers of the Sea Change conference held in Orkney in September 2001 was published in July 2003. The diverse collection of papers has been augmented by others representing aspects of Minehowe Know How the complementary international arts and experimental archaeology event which was held in Orkney from 29 May to 2 June 2002. The centuries between AD 300 and 800 were a time of great change throughout Europe. Despite their geographical position on the edge of the known world, Orkney and Shetland were affected by those changes and shared in the mainstream of European culture. Conversion to Christianity and colonisation by the Vikings were just two of the factors that affected society, and the chapters in this book explore the nature of pagan ritual, burial practices, pagan and Christian art, and the relationship between the Viking incomers and the native population. New excavations have cast light on changes in the way people lived and the settlements that they inhabited, and practical experiments have helped to explain how artefacts were made – from the fringed Orkney hood to the golden discs from the Knowes of Trotty.