It’s all go for the dig’s last week
On this, the last Monday of our final season, so many things have happened that it is hardly possible to give the special atmosphere any justice. A mixture of quiet concentration, deep thoughts, busyness, and excitement all at the same time. The weather helps, of course, and a relief from the moisture and cold of last week is most welcome. Even Safi, our loyal mascot and guardian, could be seen dreaming in the sun.
Inside the broch, work is going well and all hands are busy trying to win the constant race against the time that is coming for last weeks of excavations.
In the south-east room, Amanda is excavating the occupation layers around the edge of a sondage cut into them that now has reached down to “natural” the undisturbed glacial till/clay of the building platform on which the broch was built, a welcome sight as it helps to estimate the depth of floors yet to excavate.
Nearby, James and Thore lifted the paving stones of a short walkway at the edge of the room and below this paving a clearly deliberate spread of fine beach sand was revealed to the sun for the first time again in nearly 2,000 years.
The sand and a horse mussel shell (a unique species for this site so far) nearby is particularly interesting as it is quite possibly introduced deliberately to highlight the maritime aspect of this room that we’ve previously observed by the dominance of sea food remains here.
Similar to Amanda, Jem, in the west room of the broch, is still patiently excavating occupation layers on the grid.
Meanwhile, Martin has taken up the task of exploring the lower areas in the broch entrance, whenever he has a minute to spare.
Quite possibly the busiest area today was the broch frontage were various areas of the pavement and of Structure T2 were explored at the same time.
It was here that Kev found a pair of small stone loom weights (very similar to spindle whorls but a bit bulkier/heavier) not far from where he had spotted one earlier. Whether these are indeed large whorls or small weights they provide further evidence of the rich textile working of the site as well as the deliberate depositing of such tools in their final stages of life.
Kev and his twin weights or whorls (right) and in situ (left). (📷 Kevin Kerr/Holly Young)
Closer to the broch, Jo is taking Kubiena tin samples of the ashy fill of the fascinating shallow pit underneath the broch wall which might well be a foundation deposit dating to the time of the broch construction.
In Structure K, Nico is excavating the remains of a remarkable furnace. The stone base stone of which is crusted in metal slag literally concreted on to the slab.
In Structure B2, lots of exciting small developments happened but maybe the most interesting is the first evidence of metalworking here. It comes from material banking up against the hearth stones. Iain and Clare have been finding slag and vitrified clay, though whether these materials are the result on an earlier episode below the hearth, or redeposited material, still needs to be seen.
Lastly, the work in the cells went well, excavating U4 and U1 floors on a grid. As well as the controlled “destruction” (she insisted) that Astrid has begun on the wall of Str U3 in order to facilitate a much-needed access and understanding to the stratigraphy of the wall junction between Structures U3/U1 and J1.
Ole Thoenies
Structure U area supervisor
