Viking Panic? Looking for the 9-12th centuries in Argyll

Abstract

• The story of early medieval Argyll is told through overarching narratives: the arrival of the Scots of Dál Riata; incoming missionaries in the age of saints; and the invasions of the Vikings. A recent reassessment of the National Museums Scotland collections from this period emphasises how material culture tells a different and more interesting story. Viking-age settlement in mainland Argyll remains extremely sparse, but this is in part due to our expectations of what the Viking Age looks like in Scotland: a replacement of the status quo with new Scandinavian-style settlements and burials. Much of the evidence for the 9-11th centuries in this area is from small finds and hoards, often in existing settlements. There is also an understudied corpus of early Christian sculpture belonging to this period, alongside reliquaries and shrines which show the growth of the church and cult of saints even after the age of raids. If we include the evidence for the earliest Romanesque chapels and churches of the 12th century, we can trace the forging of a Gaelic-Norse milieu unique to this area.