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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 642363

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/642363

HU42NW 1 4255 2709 to 4235 2705.

There are steatite workings on the right bank of the burn of Catpund.

RCAHMS 1946.

Portions of two unfinished quadrangular steatite vessels from Cunningsburgh have been presented to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1951 (donations).

Steatite workings can be seen on outcrop rock at HU 4255 2709, on the right bank of the Burn of Catpund, and higher up the burn, at HU 4235 2705. Spoil heaps from the workings can also be seen, especially at the latter site. Steatite vessels from the workings are in Lerwick Museum and the vessels from Cunningsburgh (PSAS 1951) also came from here, (Mr T Henderson, Curator, Lerwick Museum).

Visited by OS (WDJ) 8th May 1968.

HU 4232 2706 An area, 10m by 8m, was excavated through a spoil heap derived from an exposed and buried rock face. The floor of the quarry was found beneath the spoil comprising over 100 tightly packed hollows left by the removal of soapstone blocks. The size and shapes of the hollows indicate the types of vessels produced - square blocks 20cm cubed and large oval blocks c.70cm long as well as baking plates. Vessels formed from similar blocks were found in the late Norse levels (12th-13th centuries) at Jarlshof.

J R C Hamilton 1956; B Smith, S Carter and V Turner 1988.

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