Excavation at The Cairns to resume this summer
Almost three years since the site was last covered over, excavation at The Cairns is due to resume this summer.
Category: The Cairns
Catch up with The Cairns in Glasgow University free online seminar
Archaeology Institute excavations at The Cairns, in South Ronaldsay, will be among the topics covered by the University of Glasgow’s new season of free online seminars.
Institute’s Brochtoberfest talks available to watch online
The four University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute talks featured in the fifth annual Orkney Archaeology Society Brochtoberfest are now available to view online.
Two projects resume excavation this summer
All University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute excavations were cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. This summer, as lockdown measures ease, archaeologists are looking forward to getting back to some fieldwork.
New paper – evidence of the grey whale at Scottish archaeological sites
A new paper co-authored by the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute’s Dr Ingrid Mainland and Martin Carruthers was launched today and is free to access online.
Video: ‘The Life and Times of The Cairns’ lecture now available online
The Orkney Archaeology Society talk on the ongoing excavation at the Iron Age site at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, is now available online.
“The Life and Times of The Cairns : A Thousand Years of living at a Broch” was given by University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute lecturer, and Cairns site director, Martin Carruthers.
Highlighting post-excavation at The Cairns
Dr Simon Gilmour, director of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, discusses the post-excavation work at the ongoing University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute excavation at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Orkney.
New radiocarbon date for Cairns shell pit
A new radiocarbon date for a shell-filled pit at The Cairns Iron Age site in South Ronaldsay shows that it was in use in the fifth or sixth century AD.
The pit appears to have been used to cook shellfish and after consumption, their shells, all 18,637 of them, were put back in it.
Cairns broch fragment may be a sliver of Roman glassware
A tiny sliver found during soil-sample processing has brought the number of ancient glass fragments from the interior of The Cairns broch to nine.
However, unlike most of the eleven examples of glass recovered across the South Ronaldsay site, this dark-green shard does not appear to be a bead fragment but may instead have come from Roman glassware.
Black Lives Mattered: Ancient Rome, Africa, Scotland, and Orkney.
The Cairns Excavation Site Director & University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute Lecturer Martin Carruthers talks about the multi cultural experience of Iron Age society in Orkney as the exploitative Roman Empire appeared in Britain.
How did Iron Age society cope with crisis?
As a society we are aided in our understanding of the Covid-19 emergency and the way we can address the social, economic and political effects through our use of technology…..but what of society in the Iron Age? How did they cope with emergencies that affected their way of life? Did they change their way of doing things permanently?
Whale bone genetics and the extraordinary closure of Cairns broch
DNA investigations undertaken on a large collection of whale bone from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute Iron Age archaeological site of The Cairns, have afforded a glimpse into the complex relationship of Iron Age communities with whales.