Spring is the season of fieldwalking and a team from the UHI Archaeology Institute were out in Stronsay recently looking for evidence of the island’s prehistory.
At the helm of the Stronsay Fieldwalking Survey project is Dr Ben Elliott, lecturer at the Archaeology Institute, and a specialist in Mesolithic archaeology.
The community project aims to complement Naomi Woodward’s 2007 Stronsay Archaeological Survey, which led to the discovery of flint tools dating to the Late Upper Palaeolithic/Early Mesolithic and led to excavation at Linkshouse and Mill Bay in 2008. This saw around 10,000 pieces of flint recovered as well as evidence of a very early prehistoric settlement.
Ben explained: “By walking fields every spring we are aiming to build a comprehensive coverage that helps to put Stronsay’s outstanding early prehistoric heritage in its wider island context.”
The team was made up of six Stronsay volunteers, supported by ORCA staff and the two-day exercise funded by a grant from the North Isles Landscape Partnership (NILPS).
The focus this time was on land belonging to Marion and Adrian Miller of Midgarth, Stronsay.
“We recovered a mixed assemblage of predominantly post-medieval pottery and flint – some of which is worked,” said Ben. “The condition of the recovered flint is very mixed, but initial assessment suggests a Neolithic element.”
Ben will be back in Stronsay this summer to present the findings and contextualise them in relation to the results of the 2007 survey work.
