Excavation

Date 6 July 2009 - 31 July 2009

Event ID 608677

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/608677

HY 5955 0873 The Brough of Deerness is a sea stack, the top of which holds the remains of a late Viking Age church and c30 associated buildings. Past archaeological research by Christopher Morris and Norman Emery focused on the church. In 2008 scheduled monument consent was granted for the excavation of two areas (A and B). In 2009 consent was granted for the excavation of a third trench (Area C), located to the E of Area A and joined to it by a small extension. Work on this area was undertaken 6–31 July 2009.

Area C An area of c13 x 7.6m was opened over an earthwork designated Structure 25 in a topographic survey

undertaken by Fred Bettess in 1977. In the SW corner a smaller area was opened to link Area C to Area A. Within the area of this extension the northern end of Structure 24 was also investigated.

Structure 24 proved to be a shallow building with little internal stratigraphy other than collapse/demolition

deposits. The excavated walls imply that it was 2.5m wide, greater than 4m long, and had at least one internal

subdivision and a heavily robbed paved floor. The date of the structure is uncertain. It is cut through midden deposits that are Pictish in date (based on two radiocarbon dates, and a Pictish bone pin recovered from the backfill of the building’s construction trench) and is truncated by a 20th-century shell hole. Analogy with other excavated structures on the Brough suggests that Structure 24 is of late Viking Age date. It may have served an ancillary, non-domestic, function given the absence of internal occupation deposits.

Structure 25 has proved to be a complex and well preserved dry stone building. Its earliest phases have not been investigated; however, it is cut through the same extensive Pictish midden deposits as Structure 24. In the earliest excavated phase Structure 25 was a rectangular dwelling house with a door in its S gable. Internally the building plan follows a layout characteristic of late Viking Age Scandinavian architecture in the North Atlantic region. It slopes appreciably from N–S. The southern end of the building was roughly paved with a stone-lined drain aligned NE-SW. Within the remainder of the building a central aisle or ‘long hearth’ consisted of deposits rich in charcoal and ash demarcated by edge-set stones. This central aisle produced an unusual segmented bone and stone (?lignite) bracelet and a small composite weight of copper alloy and lead. In the E, behind the edge-set stones, the deposits were stony and dark brown and this suggests that the eastern side of the building was a raised ‘bench’, which is now much reduced. To the W of the central aisle the floor deposits were mainly ashy and stone free suggesting this was an occupation surface. The NW corner of the building appears to have had a bin feature demarcated by a large edge-set stone slab. This phase of Structure 25 was sampled on a 0.5m grid for post-excavation analysis of soil chemistry, micro-refuse and botanical remains. Soil micro-morphology samples were also taken.

In the subsequent phase Structure 25 was converted from domestic use into a roughly paved building with no hearth. In the N the building was shortened (perhaps following a partial wall collapse) by the insertion of a cross wall and an infill of massive stone blocks. Within this fill a fragment of a 10th- to 11th-century comb was found. In the S of the building the door in the gable was blocked and much of the eastern wall line was rebuilt. A new entrance was created in the SE corner served by an external path. Internally a stone cross wall divided the shortened building into two rooms. The northern room was coherently paved and entered from the S by a door in the cross wall. The southern room was roughly paved and the bedding for this surface produced an unusual copper-alloy pendant with rune-like decoration. This phase of activity was succeeded by another episode of paving in the northern room. Contemporary paving in the southern room seems to have been robbed in antiquity.

The demolition/collapse of the building was comprehensive and resulted in the deposition of a thick layer of rubble over the two rooms. To the N of the secondary gable the rubble infill was covered by various midden deposits. One of these produced a residual sherd of blue vessel glass with white trails that is likely to be of 6th- to 7th-century date. Other finds included worked jet-like material (probably lignite), a copper-alloy pin, spindle whorls, a fragment of a schist hone and a copper-alloy strap end. The final phase of activity was represented by two small shell holes associated with considerable quantities of shrapnel. They derive from the use of the Brough as a gunnery range during WW1 and/or WW2. Orkney College Geophysics Unit was commissioned to undertake a GPS survey of the Brough’s summit.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Society of Antiquaries of London, The Russell Trust, Orkney Islands Council, Friends of St Ninian’s and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

James Gerrard and James Barrett – University of Cambridge