Abstract

In the 11th century the autonomous Viking Age 'chiefdom' of Orkney was transformed into a periphery of medieval Christian Europe. This paper integrates archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence to investigate the cultural processes that caused this transformation. It contrasts the role of external economic pressures and internal dialectical forces. I suggest that the efforts of a single lineage to consolidate secular and symbolic power may have been the catalyst of socioeconomic change. Earls such as Thorfinnr Sigurdarson sought to marginalize their competitors through recourse to pragmatic and symbolic support from the royal and ecclesiastical elite of neighbouring states. While their strategy was successful in the short term, it probably had an irreversible impact on the character of Orcadian society. This study provides a glimpse of wider processes underlying the transformation from 'Dark Age' to medieval Europe. Moreover, it provides a model of 'colonization' without population movement which may prove relevant to episodes of culture-contact elsewhere in the North Atlantic region.