Getting a-head in the farm buildings
The middle week of our season at Skaill was very productive, with some fine – even hot – weather, and ended with the site open day on Saturday. It was on that Saturday that an unexpected and spectacular find was discovered!
Work carried on apace exposing the rectangular building in Trench 19, which was exposed in a new extension to the main trench last week.
Excavating the rectangular building.
A small selection of star finds.
The huge, one-metre-wide walls were soon revealed from beneath the rubble fill. Built just as finely as the square building to the north-west, we think the two structures were contemporary and part of the late medieval farm at Skaill. The rectangular building is two-storyed with an external staircase and may have been a large storehouse or some other important building in the farm complex.
Excavation of the internal floors of the dwelling house continued, with the removal of a corner hearth and floor slabs revealing an earlier floor.
Excavation in the dwelling house.
The range of buildings had various additions over the centuries, including a dwelling house between the square and rectangular buildings, perhaps as late as the 18th century. This was built above an earlier structure, which continues outside the trench to the south and runs along the southern side of the rectangular building.
It was in a small section down the side of this wall that a spectacular find was recovered by one of our undergraduate students Katie Joss. An unassuming piece of red sandstone fell out of the section and it literally stared back – it was a finely carved head!
Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon explained: “This is such an exciting find. Over the years excavating at Skaill and The Wirk – the nearby hall tower – we have found several interesting moulded pieces of red sandstone but nothing like this!
“The carved head is of rich, red sandstone, with yellow inclusions, that was likely quarried from the island of Eday and is the same as the moulded fragments from the nearby St Mary’s old parish church.
“The carving of the head looks as though it was meant to be seen from the front, at a slight angle to show the front part of the top of the head, which has beautifully carved locks of hair. The eyes appear closed as there is nothing to indicate pupils, and the slight smile and asymmetric eyebrows express real character.
“The nose is broken. Could this have been done deliberately as an act of iconoclasm or was this accidental? It’s odd that no other part of the head is damaged.
“We have found parallels for our other red sandstone finds in St Magnus Cathedral, in Kirkwall, but I couldn’t find anything closely comparable to this. The eyes are similar to carvings dating from the earlier phases of cathedral construction, but I could find no comparison for the serene expression.”
After her cathedral search, Sarah Jane’s initial findings indicate the most similar carving to the Skaill head, in size and form, is located in a window frame in the south aisle, close to the south transept. Here a carved face has been inserted into the lower block of the frame.
Even more intriguingly, the cathedral head has a curl of hair on the left side of the face whereas the Skaill head’s curl is on the right-side – as if a mirror image! Could the Skaill carving have been similarly placed?
Sarah Jane added: “For now, the Skaill head must remain a fascinating enigma in terms of date, origin and use, but its discovery, along with many other fine pieces of carved red sandstone, as well as those built into the nearby old parish church of St Mary, strongly suggests a building of some splendour once stood in the vicinity.”
Sarah Jane will continue researching the carving, including those incorporated into St Magnus Cathedral, so watch this space for future interpretations and updates!
Our open day on Saturday had living history, with Alan and Keith, with activities and objects from the medieval period, including bone carving. Artist Anna Gardiner joined us again this year and constructed a willow, nettle and mud shelter (more from her soon).
Associate Professor Scott Timpany brought a pop-up lab to our site tent, with a microscope to look at seeds, charred remains, and animal bone – evidence for farming practices in the past.
We also worked with three young people from Rousay to devise a site tour for visitors. They explored the trenches and spoke to specialists to devise a story for their tours. They gave several tours on the open day.
