A drain or souterrain number two?
Work continued at The Cairns today, with bright sunny weather quickly drying the site after the sudden heavy downpour in the closing hour of yesterday.
In the north-western area, progress has been made with a misaligned wall in Structure B2 with a stone, shelf-like surface appearing in front of the wall-face. More pottery fragments were unearthed atop this surface, possibly belonging to the same pot found in this area previously.
Elsewhere, Karla and Iris began clearing back the hitherto untouched southern side of the structure, finding some cattle teeth, bone, and possible worked stone. Logan cleaned the main Structure B2 interior ready for recording.
In the overburden, or “Ross’s Rubble”, clearing along the broch wall continued apace with bone, shell and plenty of rubble being discovered. A mysterious big stone emerged in the middle of the area – likely to be more rubble – currently being dug by Kate and Glenn, with the moral support from the trench-side by Hazel the dog.
Sarah, a UHI Archaeology Institute student, undertook the drawing of stone uprights and their packing nearby.
The team in Structure O have removed more rubble, with possible signs of a structure appearing beneath. Another quernstone was also revealed today – a saddle-quern – along with a void beneath the east wall from which a cool breeze could be felt!
Kev speculated that it may relate to a drain although Holly is “Still vibing for Souterrain 2.0”!
Outside Structure E, Lindsay and Baily finished excavating the remains of an entire pig. The unfused bones suggest that this was a young animal.
In the cells, Joe, Ole, Deryck, Anthea and Angela continued to uncover and record a fascinating, extensive animal bone deposit, with opinion divided on the species of an almost complete skull! Generally, the bone spread comprises cattle, sheep/goat, pig, red deer, horse, and seal. Some stone tools were also found with this deposit.
Across the broch, there has been a lot of photography and planning taking place. In the south-east room, the new hearth was recorded ready for further excavation tomorrow (weather permitting!).
Joanne has been planning a flag surface (which may be contiguous with the well lintel) in the north room, while Jan has been similarly recording the central area.
Martin continued excavating the deposits at the entrance to the broch’s beautifully corbelled west cell, where he has found a lot of ashy infill material, probably from the nearby hearth in the west room.
This deposit is likely to provide some interesting environmental information as it is rich in charcoal and burnt bone.
