Some surprises before the rain…
Although the rain chased us off site before 4pm, the sunny morning got the working day off to a good start.
In the broch’s west room, Jem and Rick began by carefully revealing more of the perforated bone mount that was discovered at the end of the play yesterday. It was eventually lifted from its position at the edge of the hearth deposits. Excitingly, a copper alloy spiral-ring was discovered nearby and this necessitated the careful collection of the surrounding deposits because copper alloy is known to help preserve organic materials.
Other activity in the west room included further sampling of floor deposits by Travis, to the south of the hearth, while Jean continued sampling and removing hearth deposits to begin to understand how the various layers connect within the hearth itself. A small area immediately next to the possible ash box corner of the hearth mound turned up a cobble stone tool, pottery, and unburnt bone.
Continuing the copper alloy theme, another piece was found in the north room by Thore, while removing the initial layer of deposits from the edge of the hearth stone.
Over in the north-east room, Scott continued digging the ashy hearth deposits, finding charred grains of naked barley. The aim in this room is to find the original floor surface, which can be seen in a few places. Although it is small compared to the north and west rooms, it still contained a substantial hearth. It will be interesting to understand how this room was used by the people who lived in the broch.
The hearth in the south-east room continued to be investigated by Amanda and Carrie. They found yet more copper alloy along with some cramp within a very burnt deposit.
After the excitement of finding the first perforated bone mount in the south room yesterday, this area was quieter for finds today as Milly and Emma finished sampling the deposits from beneath the paving that was lifted last week.
Heading outside the broch brings us immediately to Structure O, where Cath, Dani, and Amalia were working to reveal possible walls and paving which will help with interpreting this unusual building.
Structure O stands directly in front of the broch entrance and, as far as we can tell, would have been there for at least part of the broch’s inhabited life. This is unusual for broch village buildings, where typically, as at Gurness, we would expect a clear path through the outer buildings directly to the broch’s entrance.
Nearby, Holly was preparing for taking kubiena samples of the souterrain floor. This involves hammering a kubiena tin into a section through a deposit. When the tin is removed, it takes with it a piece of that section. This is then flooded with a resin, which sets hard and can be sliced thinly for analysis under a microscope to reveal layers that are not visible to the naked eye.
In front of the broch wall, Craig, Dan, and Isaac continued to remove rubble from the structure’s demolition at the end of the second century AD. They are now reaching the base of this rubble layer and beginning to reveal occupation deposits and clean clay from when the broch was inhabited.
This area keeps “ticking along” – every time I walk past it looks different. Finds today included an articulated animal spine, pottery spreads and plenty of shells. The aim here is to continue to investigate the sinuous, unroofed extension of the souterrain that currently heads in the direction of the cells.
The Overburden area was busy today, with Nathan, Iris, Ellen, Lewis, Kathryn, Django and Claire working to understand the layout of walls and how they connect. Ellen was planning a paved area, and two worked stone tools were discovered along with butchered bone. Some ceramic crucible fragments were also found and this hints at metalworking activity in this part of the site.
One of the biggest surprises of the day (quite literally!) came from the cells. When Anthea, Deryck, and Ole were dismantling the wall of Structure U2 a void appeared. This turned out to be a previously unknown chamber. It seems to be quite big and roofed with a single large slab. Work will continue to remove the rubble and shillet infill in order to see more of this new chamber and to understand the relationships between the buildings here.
That’s all for today’s round up. Although the forecast looks very wet for tomorrow, we’ll hope for some dry spells in which to continue excavating.
Beverley Rose
MLitt Archaeological Studies student
