Monday’s star find of the ongoing Lerwick Garden Dig was a bone comb fragment, found in the Bank Lane area of the town.
The fragment emerged from the base of a metre-square test pit and although it is similar to examples from the Norse period, bone combs remained in use as late as the 19th century.
Other finds included 17th century pottery, a pipkin foot, a reused pot spindle whorl, decorated clay pipe stem, fine China and a third gun flint.
Part of Looking in from the Edge (LIFTE) – an international project examining the Northern Isles’ place in European trade networks of the 15th to 18th centuries – the Lerwick Garden Dig will see a series of test pits dug across the historic core of the town to look for evidence of trade links.
