Antler, potential paving and worked bone
Despite a damp start to a delayed open day, work has continued with much enthusiasm. There has also been a stream of visitors to the site, many of whom had lovely things to say about their archaeologist guides and were very positive about the site in general.
Logan and his group have been busy photographing the south-western area of Structure B2. Then, moving focus to the northern area of the structure, a good deal of planning and scale drawing has been taking place.
While a change from the painstaking excavation of the large bone deposit of last week, some have admitted that the paperwork is perhaps not their favourite part of the dig! Although it is a very necessary one.
In between giving tours to many visitors, Ole has continued supervising work in Structure U4 of ‘the cells’.
Anthea and Deryck seem to have reached the end of a mass bone deposit, continuing their work from last Thursday. The area produced one last reward before morphing into “voidy rubble”. This came in the form of a large piece of antler.
Other finds today include a piece of worked bone, which appears to be an unfinished item, perhaps related to comb-making or a large toggle. This was found by the youngest member of The Cairns team, Luca, who has impressed the volunteers while working on a school project.
Along the southeast edge of the cell, Dagmar and Bronwen have been taking down a deposit overlying the structure wall. Fairly sparse for finds, this area has yielded a stone tool.
After the excitement of last week’s rotary quern, work in Structure O has been proceeding nicely with Holly, Alannah and Kev removing yet more rubble. This seems to be reaping some sort of reward in the form of an orangey clay deposit and a potential substantial paved surface. Though not as exciting as a quern, the thought of an end to the rubble in some areas of the building is a welcome one!
Rick has been a great help to those in Structure O by shifting many large pieces of rubble. In between all of this, he has built a wall along the stone pile.
This keeps the edge of the walkway further back from the trench edge – a safety feature – as well as making a revetment style wall to hold the stone from slipping forward – just like they built in the Iron Age. The sheer volume of rubble infilling Structure O came from the decommissioning of the broch.
In Ross’ overburden area, several animal bones and a piece of antler have come to light, along with the continued spot-sampling of larger pieces of charcoal. When asked for comment, the volunteers expressed disdain at Orcadian weather but were very enthusiastic about the joy they feel at even the smallest find. Apparently, the on-site biscuit surplus is an added bonus!
In the finds hut, Angela and Cathie have been collating the sample list. This is a seemingly endless process, although an important one to help reduce human error between now and post-excavation processes.
After the horrendous weather of last Friday, and this morning, the mood on site is decidedly more cheerful. A new cohort of diggers have brought an enthusiastic approach to the last week of the 2024 season.
Hopefully, the weather will allow for work in the broch itself to continue throughout the rest of the week, but the surrounding structures have garnered much to be excited about in the coming days!
Emily Jones
UHI BA (Hons) Archaeology student
