Edited by James Barrett, this book includes chapters by many different contributors. It is, however, very much Barrett's product, which has come to fruition out of his own research excavation at Quoygrew, a small and recently abandoned settlement on the north-west coast of the island of Westray, which is itself on the north-west edge of the Orkney Islands. He led a series of annual excavations at this location from 2002 to 2007, and has brought the results of the excavations to full publication in admirably quick time. He has shared the writing of the book with several of the participants in the excavation and post-excavation research programme, but his hand is in every chapter, assessing the results and incorporating them into his own research agenda.

That research agenda comes through loud and clear, and the ‘aims in mind’ (p 10), the ‘central goal’ (p 97) and the ‘ultimate goal’ (p 290) arise out of a very valuable and unusual aspiration: to assess the results of his excavation in the economic context of changes in production and the changing economic circumstances which impacted on northern Europe in the medieval period. This takes him from the tenth century and the Norse age to the sixteenth century and the overtaking of Norse culture in the islands by incoming Scottish influences. He is able to do this and is driven to do it by the long-lived nature of the settlement at Quoygrew. The chronology of the site actually extends from the tenth century (Phase 1) to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Phase 6), which is a very remarkable sequence of continuous archaeology at one site throughout the medieval, post-medieval and modern periods. It is particularly unusual to have a focus on the period of time when the results of archaeological investigation have to be married with the historical evidence. Barrett's familiarity with the historical sources and his ability to use those sources meaningfully and with understanding have been proven in several publications which he wrote before, and during, the time of the Quoygrew excavations. The result is enlightening for all those interested in the history of the Norse earldoms and the post-earldom period. It brings to the fore the many changes in economic development, with the aim of demonstrating how this one site might ‘inform our understanding of the socio-economic watersheds of medieval Europe’ (p 275).

One of the main achievements of this monograph is therefore the co-ordination of the specialist reports and the setting with Barrett's own analysis of the results. These are very skilfully presented, resulting in readable and comprehensive accounts, despite the formidably detailed and scientific material evidence. This material is analysed and followed up by comprehensible summaries, which enable the non-specialist to understand its significance and relevance in the wider archaeological context. Chapters 6 and 7 on ‘The Maritime Economy’ provide an especially impressive account of the process of butchery and preservation of stockfish, which was complex and resulted in different kinds of wind- and salt-dried cod which this reviewer has never fully understood – and does now. ‘Two central goals’ are said to be to elucidate whether there was a fishing boom in Orkney from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, and if so whether it was related to the early growth of the long-range dried cod trade. This area of enquiry has been one of Dr Barrett's main research endeavours for many years. His excavation of the small farm of Quoygrew has provided him with the opportunity to put his earlier work into the context of an ordinary Orkney island settlement and thus combine the big question of economic boom and North Atlantic trade with a very domestic and ‘peripheral’ environment. He has achieved this magnificently.