Damp start to week three
Unfortunately, the weather was something of a challenge today, with persistent rain and high winds, which, in tandem with sensitive archaeological deposits, deep trenches, and high ancient walls, was neither safe nor conducive to excavating.
We were therefore forced off site very early in the morning and returned to base.
Nevertheless, we were able to conduct our health-and-safety inductions for all the new members of the dig team. Then, back at the UHI Archaeology Institute in Kirkwall, I did a show-and-tell, introducing the team a variety of the artefacts from site – from gaming counters to glass beads and whalebone objects to spindle whorls, stone tools, bone dress pins, pottery and antler combs.
After lunch, the indoor activities continued as colleague Scott Timpany brought the team into our environmental archaeology labs and showed them the wonders of the carbonised plant remains and pollen that we can obtain from the various soil samples we gather from site.
Hopefully, the improved forecast for tomorrow is accurate and we can get back to excavation, especially as we’ve been fortunate with the weather in the first two weeks and this has really kick-started our progress.
As ever, we’ll keep you informed…
Martin Carruthers
The Cairns site director
