The bead and the secret chamber
Don’t forget about tomorrow’s open day at The Cairns. All are welcome between 10am and 4pm to learn more about the site and the finds at this spectacular Iron Age site over the past five weeks.
It’s a bonnie day at The Cairns as we near the end of the penultimate week on site.
The day started out with some excitement, as Structure O produced two amazing finds. Cath began to investigate the wall of Structure O and found a beautiful bone bead.
When looking down the drain-like void in the wall, we also discovered a secret chamber, with a single limpet shell, which probably hasn’t seen sunlight in thousands of years!
Inside Structure O, Dani and Nathan continue to uncover the paving stones at the entrance to the souterrain. There are a lot of finds in here – the most exciting being the stone spindle whorl.
Holly was back in her souterrain (Structure F), taking geochemical samples. She has 72 already – surely some kind of record. Just a stone’s throw away, in the entrance portion of Structure F, Isaac is currently seeing whether there is a continuation of the souterrain – watch this space!
Dream-team Dan and Craig are in the broch frontage, taking down the layers and finding lots of shells and bones, including a whale bone.
Kathryn has come to the rescue with context sheets for the overburden area, where we have Orkney’s own spaghetti junction – so many walls and where do they go? They have also begun to excavate an associated bone group (what looks like a neonatal lamb), which will provide a lovely sample for radiocarbon dating.
Lots of progress is being made in the cell – Ole and Sedat are excavating the rubble from the front of the roofed cell, opening it up nicely. Sedat is uncovering some articulated animal bones and Ron has excavated a rich charcoal deposit in the top north corner. Debora and Ron also have a puzzling wall situation between the broch wall and the wall of the cell. They are clearing up as much as they can, and we have faith they will work it out.
Let’s go into the broch, where Emma and Ceiridwen have had an exciting day in the south room, completely excavating a deer skull, with antler attached, and articulated vertebrae. They are continuing to excavate and sample the occupation deposits one layer at a time.
In the west room, Jem and Neil are also sampling floors. They have just found a pottery spread underneath a large stone at the western edge of the room. Rick is sorting out the stratigraphy of the hearth area. Travis has been taking micromorph samples of the hearth material on the south side of the main path. He also found a stone tool.
Amanda and Aspen continue excavating the in the south-east room, focusing on the hearth and an occupation deposit which contained a beautiful stone tool.
Scott is defining a stone-setting at the base of the deposits in the north-east room, which could be a hearth or a working area.
In the north room, Thore has lifted the big hearth slab, and is now sampling some lovely, rich, organic occupation deposits.
Overall, a lovely day of excavation in the bright Orkney sunshine!
Cath Creswell
Archaeologist
