Back on site in better weather…
After work on Friday was cancelled due to the weather, today saw some beautiful conditions to start the week and a new batch of field school students and some new volunteers.
The broch frontage saw a variety of activities. Tim and Kathryn began excavating the remaining half of a large shell midden in Structure T that was last excavated in 2023. This seems to mainly consist of periwinkles and limpets with a few mussels, and some animal bone.
Interestingly, some of the limpets appeared to have been stacked which suggests that this material wasn’t always necessarily just thrown onto the midden. Iris continued sampling floor deposits on a grid-sectioned cell of Structure T, finding some pottery, whilst Chip worked down through the deposits in a later cell also within Structure T.
Tim and Kathryn excavating the shell midden in Structure T. (📷 Martin Carruthers/Holly Young)
Work also continued in the open paved courtyard of Structure O in front of the broch entrance. I was excavating several pieces of pottery from near the drain running from the broch entrance, whilst Logan worked to clean the paving at the north end of Structure O.
Meanwhile, Craig uncovered more paving at the south end of the courtyard and found stone tools and large pieces of pot. One of these was very similar to the large piece found in this area last week, and another was a smaller, finer base piece of a bright, orange-coloured vessel. Joanne’s work today was in the area immediately east of Structure O, above the drain culvert here. Today she found lots of animal bone, worked stone, and shells.
Moving south around the broch to the area we call “the Cells”, work continued here in the areas behind and within Structure U3 to reveal more of the walls of Structure J with the aim of understanding the relationship between Structures J and U1. There were not many small finds here today, but much progress was made in Structure U1, especially removing rubble from the two-tier alcove next to the triple-decker cupboard that were found last year. The back slab and the inner surface within this alcove were revealed.
To the west of the broch lies Structure B2. The occupation deposit on the floor of this building has now been gridded, and the charcoal-rich floor is being sampled from within the grid squares. A set of upper hearth slabs have been lifted revealing earlier vivid ashy deposits beneath.
At the north end of the site, in Structure K, James began removing material from an unexcavated corner of this building. The hope is to take down this corner to the same level as the rest of the floor that was last excavated in 2020 and understand floor levels and earlier occupation deposits.
Moving into the broch itself…
In the south-east room, Amanda and James have been creating plan drawings of the hearth area, recording the early hearth settings revealed last week. They also lifted a large piece of burnt wood from against the broch wall and found a cache of small-finds in the north part of this room. These were also located against the broch wall and an orthostat, and they included stone tools, animal bone and a spread of pottery.
In the south room, Quin continued working down through the deposits finding some possibly semi-articulated animal bone and a small metal hoop of chain-link of copper alloy.
Quin and his copper alloy fragments. (📷 Holly Young)
In the north-east room, the remaining hearth deposits continue to be excavated. It seems that they may be coming down on to a possible hearth-setting, and possibly some stone tools associated with it. Scott worked to remove charred deposits beneath paving that was lifted previously.
Activity in the west room today mainly involved cleaning and photographing the paving near the hearth and then lifting it. The grid squares in this area were then re-established ready to tackle excavating the deposits below the lifted paving. Small finds in this room today included animal bone, a quern rubber and some stone tools.
In the north room, Val worked to sample the deposits from the hearth and Thore continued excavating the section running from the well entrance. At the western end of this section, he found two pieces of pot that appeared to have possibly been pushed into the natural clay below the earliest occupation levels. It is hoped that this section will soon be extended on the other side of the well entrance.
That’s all the news from today. Tomorrow looks to be another good weather day so hopefully we can get another full day of productive digging!
Bev Rose
MLitt Archaeological Studies graduate
