The quernstones keep coming
Today was met with some excellent sunshine and a bit of wind while the archaeologists worked hard in each area of the excavation.
Starting in Structure B2, more work was done to straighten the east section edge of the area, where Nathan uncovered a nice piece of pottery, along with a few bone artefacts. Also, Nathan and Robert continued to sample the floor deposit around the central hearth, which contained ash and charcoal.
Now to the cells, where the team are Anthea, Deryck, Sarah and newly arrived supervisor, Ole Thoenies. Cell U4 (the large cell) is the current focus, where the team excavated a probable occupation deposit that contained a lot of charcoal and clay.
Finds-wise, in U4, a stone tool and fragments of animal bone were found. In U3 they have started excavating rubble. The team hopes that the junction in-between the two cell areas will start to make sense as they remove the rubble throughout the rest of the week.
Over to the broch frontage and one of the best archaeology teams I have seen. Craig worked on clearing rubble in front of the broch wall and on an area of midden in front. This contained a lot of charcoal, some interesting white clay and fish bone. Joanne worked on removing an ashy deposit that contained a few large shells and found some animal bones.
In my own area, I was concentrating on a rubble section. This has revealed more of the wall that appears to be in line with the souterrain and creates an interesting passage with another adjacent wall. Hopefully, we will have more answers as we start to remove the rubble from between the walls. Holly continued to draw accurate profile drawings of the souterrain passage.
To the north-east, in the “overburden” area, more rubble was removed by the hardworking team of Claire, Rebecca, Lewis, and Carrie. The work has revealed some nice, coursed walling. Rebecca was working on the “Spaghetti Junction” of walls to help clarify where they go. She also found some animal bone, as did Lewis, who uncovered a jawbone, complete with teeth.
Heading into the broch, we start in the south-east room, where Ellen was defining chunks of charcoal within ash deposits near the hearth.
Today, the covers came off the south room for the first time, where Emma and Milly cleaned the paved floor, excavated two small deposits, and began planning the paving. Finds-wise, Emma did a great job spotting a small vole tooth!
Over to our environmental specialists in the north-east room: SJ, Liz, and Scott, who were excavating and sampling the heat-affected deposits, including water-logged material which overlies the natural till.
The team also used Kubiena tins to take samples through the deposits, which will hopefully supply some pollen information to be analysed under the microscope in the lab.
Heading into the north-west room, we meet Thore! He has been excavating in a large area to the west of the well entrance, finding a lot of pottery along the way. Finally, in the west room, Bev and Chris were investigating some very pretty hearth layers, attempting to understand the deposit formation. Next to the hearth, Travis continued to uncover articulated red deer bone.
Hopefully we will continue to get sunshine, blue skies and cool finds.
Grace Honeyman
UHI BA (Hons) Archaeology student
