Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2004, Page 55

Some Notes on Earthworks and Dykes in Iceland and in the North Atlantic
Fig 2: Penne farm, Vest-Agder, South Norway. The division between the heath outlands and the
arable is clearly visible (S. Mjaatvedt).
as a series of subsequent hill dykes
(Owen & Lowe 1999). The 'March Dyke'
is thought to have been the final hill dyke
at Kebister. No dating evidence for this
dyke is available, but Brian Smith
believes the fínal hill dyke to have been
constructed as late as the end of the 18th
or the beginning of the 19th century
(Smith 1999:20).
A second dyke, called Dyke 2, may
have served as an early hill dyke, enclos-
ing an area of c. 12 ha (Owen & Lowe
1999:289). This dyke seems to have been
built during the 12th or 13th centuries
AD (Butler 1999:64). There is evidence
for arable expansion at Kebister in this
period, and another dyke, Dyke 3, might
have been constructed in the same period
to mark a subdivision of the arable land.
However, there seems to have been an
active farming community at the site
already in the late Pictish and/or early
Norse period.
The lesson regarding the age of the
different kinds of dykes, summed up by
Owen and Lowe, is worth quoting:
'The assumption for too long has been
that sub-peat dykes, of which many sur-
vive in Shetland, are usually prehistoric
features. In the light of the evidence from
Kebister, even allowing that some ele-
ments of the Kebister landscape may rep-
resent Iron Age survivals, and despite the
evidence of the Shurton Hill prehistoric
sub-peat dyke, this assumption now
requires review' (1999:290).
The date of Dyke 2 in Kebister,
together with the evidence from Papa
Stour, seems to suggest certain similari-
ties between the development pattem in
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