Excavation LIFTE Rousay Skaill Farmstead Viking/Norse

Skaill and the Wirk, Rousay: Day Three

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Wednesday's excavation update from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute’s Dan Lee.

Wednesday’s excavation update from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute’s Dan Lee.

Jen in Trench Nineteen at Skaill. (Dan Lee)

A day of finds

The Trench Nineteen token. Any ideas? (Dan Lee)

There were some spectacular finds at Skaill today.

We started excavating below an internal floor in one of the post medieval buildings and Jen found a trade or workhouse token – a plain, copper-alloy disc stamped on both sides with “MA”.

That was before Ingrid spied an unusual object in the corner of Trench Twenty-Two – a pair of c.19th century spectacles, with one lens still in place!

It was wonderful to find such a personal object from one of the inhabitants of Skaill. It looks like they were reading glasses as they are similar to my +1 glasses.

Pair of specs found in Trench Twenty-Two at Skaill. (Dan Lee)
In Trench Five at Skaill work continues extending the test pit from 2017 to explore the Norse midden. So far mixed layers from the 19th century have contained iron, pottery, shell and glass. (Dan Lee)

At the Wirk, Sarah Jane and Chris lifted two finely moulded fragments of red sandstone, both with similar profiles perhaps from a fine window. The team continued digging down the sides of the large stone walls to find their foundations.

The moulded sandstone fragments from the Wirk. (Dan Lee)
Sarah Jane and Chris at work at the Wirk. (Dan Lee)

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