With the weather set fair the team enjoyed a really productive second week at Skaill, Rousay. You can find out about week one here and see a plan of the site here.
Monday started with lifting a large floor slab in the rectangular building, to explore a potential earlier floor below. The slab lifted whole, and below was a layer of beach pebbles used to level the area. The deposit contained worn beach shells and Calum found a Groatie Buckie (arctic cowrie), good luck for some! Below this an earlier floor was found.
Following the removal of the primary flag floor in the central room, excavation of a levelling layer of slabs commenced by Katie and Lara, revealing a silty layer containing lots of shell, fish and animal bone. Excitingly, this sealed the end of a wall. Patches of lime mortar were found in the area and it soon became apparent that the wall faces were bonded with mortar, with evidence for an internal lime coating. Very high status indeed! The wall continued to the east.
The early wall emerges. (📷 Dan Lee)
The base of the surrounding walls for the central room were reached, indicating that our mortared wall was part of a substantial earlier building that survived underneath. This looked like the remains of our Norse horizon, continuing on from the early hall to the west, exposed in 2019.
The presence of in-situ lime mortar being used to point and coat a wall is very interesting and from initial observations the mortar composition is comparable with that found in nearby high status 12th and 13th century buildings such as Cubbie Roo’s Castle and St Mary’s Chapel on Wyre, the church on Eynhallow and The Wirk, a towered building next to Skaill.
Significantly, a fragment of a steatite cooking pot (soap stone) was found, with clear chisel marks and a sooty exterior – other fragments of steatite have only previously been found in the hall. When considered alongside the discovery of the mortar and large fish bones in the same area, it certainly seems we have reached Norse levels. This would be really significant if we had well-preserved Norse remains below the later farmstead on the eastern side of the settlement mound.
In the dwelling house to the south, work continued led by Ingrid to realign our interpretations, as following the removal of the final occupation layers from the dwelling house, this area has reached deposits formed when the area was external.
Diffuse silty clay layers sealed various stone levelling, slabs and more consolidated stone paving was emerging.
This outside area seemed to have been used for grinding grain, evident from the numerous chips of mica schist found in the deposits, derived from rotary quern stones. On his last day UHI postgraduate student Ian found half a quernstone! A great way to end your field school.
To the north, work began on the internal floors of the square building, removing ashy levelling and patches of stone flag floor. Small exploratory sections revealed rich occupation layers below.
Anna with her decorated spindle whorl. (📷 Dan Lee)
These were sample excavated and deposits contained some amazing artefacts, including diagnostic pottery, a copper alloy object and a beautifully decorated spindle whorl.
The spindle whorl was found by Art Archaeology postgraduate student Anna whose practice includes spinning wool – some things are meant to be!
Excavations continued at the north end of the trench to try and find the end of an earlier building. So far it keeps on going and we can’t find the end!
Saturday, July 18, was our open day – with islanders and tourists visiting the site. Julia made bannocks and butter in one of our tents drawing on historical research, and there were find displays and site tours. It was also World Listening Day, and artist Alieen Ogilvie invited visitors to listen and document the sounds at the site. She has been listening and recording around the site all week focusing in particular on the wrens who can be heard calling from the ruins and walls.
Watch this space for more updates for our third and final week of excavations!
Dan Lee
Project co-director
Skaill was funded this year with grants from OIC Archaeology Fund, Birdhouse Trust and Rousay Egilsay and Wyre Development Trust.
