Archaeology Notes

Event ID 785813

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/785813

HY50NW 38 5105 0603

This is one of many glacial-looking hillocks lying E of the cemetery and 400m SE of the parish hall at Toab. A good few years before 1979 a school-teacher moved some stone on the summit and found an opening with steps leading down. The proprietor caused the opening to be re-sealed.

RCAHMS 1987, visited April 1979.

An underground chamber relating to the mound was rediscovered in 1999. An excavation was undertaken and the mound, though natural, contained a chamber and was surrounded by a ditch. For a full account, see MS/1040/3.

NMRS MS/1043/1

HY 510 060 The Late Iron Age metalworking area outwith the ditch that surrounds the underground structure at Mine Howe (HY50NW 38; DES 2001, 71) was further investigated in 2002. Further evidence recovered includes crucibles, slag, tuyeres, furnace linings and a kiln. This appeared to be associated with an oval stone structure c 6m in diameter. A whale-tooth sword pommel was recovered in one of the alcoves built into the wall of this structure. Time did not allow the floor deposits of this structure to be investigated. Several sherds of Romano-British colour-coated ware were also recovered.

Archive to be deposited in Orkney SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsors: HS, Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Archaeology Trust, Orkney College, University of Sheffield

N Card and J Downes 2002

HY 510 060 The Late Iron Age metalworking area (Trench E), outwith the ditch that surrounds the underground structure, was further investigated in 2003 (HY50NW 38; see DES 2002, 87-8). Excavation concentrated on the round structure uncovered at the end of the 2002 season. Four main phases of activity within this structure have so far been identified. Throughout its history it appears to have been primarily a workshop for the production of non-ferrous metalwork. Besides a wide assemblage of associated debris being recovered (including moulds, crucibles, a steatite ingot mould, a copper ingot, anvils and whetstones), several small kilns were found in the interior.

This workshop may only represent the last phase in a long history of metalworking at Mine Howe. A deep sondage was excavated to the N of the workshop to further explore the plaggen soils around the site. This revealed that over 2m of archaeological material had been deliberately deposited during the Iron Age. Near the base of this sondage, ironworking debris was still encountered. The sondage also showed that the landscape around Mine Howe had been dramatically altered during the life of the underground structure.

A new trench (Trench G) was located over the main ditch to the W of the underground chamber. Unlike Trenches A and B opened in 2000 (DES 2000, 65-6), this trench was intended to investigate a 'quiet' area of the ditch as suggested by the magnetometry survey. Excavation, however, showed that the lack of magnetic responses in this area was due to the depth of overburden masking underlying features. An extensive spread of animal bone was encountered in the upper fills - corresponding to a similar bone spread in the ditch terminal excavated in 2000. Below this were thick deposits of ashy middens - again similar episodes of deposition were encountered in previously excavated ditch sections. Beneath the middens, part of an oval stone-built structure, c 3.5m in diameter, was uncovered. The single-faced walling of this structure consisted partly of upright slabs with drystone masonry on top and was built into the partially infilled ditch. The floor was partially flagged with rough paving, slumping into the underlying ditch fills. A possible drain underlay the paving. No finds were associated with this structure.

After the ditch had become totally infilled and was probably no longer visible, a sub-circular pit, c 1.5m in diameter by 0.5m deep, was dug into the outer edge of the ditch. This was lined by a series of large upright slabs. In the uppermost fill, central to the pit, was the inhumation of a child. Apart from a spread of charcoal lower down, the rest of this feature was devoid of finds.

A narrow slot trench was extended from the NE corner of Trench G towards the top of the mound, in order to investigate a small, discrete, highly magnetic anomaly. This was only one of numerous similar anomalies that appeared in the original magnetometry survey. This anomaly proved to be a largely intact iron furnace. It had been built in a shallow pit with four upright, carefully wedged slabs forming the main structure, c 0.45m square. The fired clay superstructure had collapsed into the interior which was filled with slag. Two small upright stones on one side probably formed a flue or access point for a tuyère. This furnace was left unexcavated and covered over. It is hoped that a metallurgist specialist will be involved in the dismantling of this next year. A single course of revetment was revealed in this trench on the inner edge of the main ditch - similar to that found in Trench A in 2000.

Report to be lodged with Orkney SMR and the NMRS.

Sponsors: HS, Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Enterprise, Orkney Archaeology Trust, Orkney College.

N Card, J Downes 2003