Good progress and more copper alloy…
Another nice sunny day at The Cairns with progress made both inside and outside the broch.
Starting at the front of broch, in Structure T, I was joined by Elspeth and, with her help, we finally finished excavating the shell midden, which appears to be a dump of material from a seafood feast after the broch had fallen into disuse or possibly during its demolition.
In all, we have filled 23 sacks with the shells. Holly drew a plan of the position of the midden and the sacks of material will go back to the lab. The shells had been dumped on top of a collapsed load of rubble and it is possible that we have a further shell dump underneath. If that turns out to be true, then it would be suggestive of two separate shellfish consumption events.
Craig and the copper alloy ring. (📷 Martin Carruthers/Iain Healy)
In the forecourt (or as Craig calls it the “Plaza”) in front of the broch, Craig found some pottery and (while dig director, Martin was watching) a lovely copper-alloy ring. Django, cleaning the forecourt, spotted a pivot stone, an area or paving which may have supported a door.
Also found in this area today were a number of stone stools, some of which were covered in “broch gloss”, analysis of which may help us understand what they were being used for, but suggestions include plant fibres or metalworking.
Julia, newly arrived on site today, was also working in the forecourt and trying to figure out the remnants of the entrance to the souterrain, which had been built against the broch front wall.
In Structure B2 (the post-broch, “Wag” building sunk into the remains of the decommissioned broch), Jan, Shelly, and Iain were digging in the north gable end and recovered 20 large potsherds, some nice stone tools and a quern.
Inside the broch, Jean spent her first day on site in the small central room cleaning the floor in readiness for excavation and sampling.
In the south room, Leila and Quin removed some fish and marine mammal bone from the clay floor along with some stone tools and are cleaning back the slabs in order to plan them before lifting them to discover what lies underneath them.
In the north-east room, Scott and SJ are figuring out the packing of the upright orthostat stones and have now reached the natural soil surface meaning that work in this room in near to completion.
Just across the passage, Amanda and James are working in the south-east room. Each room in the broch seems to have its own biography and in this room under the floor there is a void, possibly the result of a collapse which has been filled in with stone tools and some lovely saddle querns.
Once these have been excavated and recorded, the team will continue down to see if they have the natural soil or a further floor surface.
In the north room, Thore has been recording the slabs capping the “well” structure and found a very nice piece of whale bone set into the paving. Further excavation here will hopefully allow Thore to figure out the relationship between the flooring slabs, the capping of the well and the main broch wall to figure out if the well was part of the original design and construction.
Tim Hewson
MLitt. Archaeological Studies student
