Excavation

Date 16 June 2010 - 11 July 2010

Event ID 881183

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/881183

ND 4542 8688 Excavation work continued 16 June–11 July

2010 as part of ongoing research on the Orcadian Iron Age.

The principal aims were to understand and further reveal a

massive Atlantic roundhouse or broch-like building (Structure

A) that makes up a large part of the mound and to continue

to investigate the later Iron Age settlement (Structural areas

B, C, D and E) that surmounts and intrudes into the building

fabric of Structure A. The main focus of work was an open

area trench of c25 x 25m and Structures C and E.

Structure A, a monumental thick-walled roundhouse 22m

in diameter, was further defined in an extensive band of work

across the SE portion of the building. Approximately a third of

the rubble fill in the S and E sides of the interior of Structure

A was excavated. This facilitated the concurrent excavation

of the SE-facing entrance of the building. During 2008 and

2009, the upper deposits in the entrance had been found

to constitute modern infill, and an episode of antiquarian

excavation was confirmed. This season, the excavation of the

entrance area revealed a finely built passage surviving to a

height of c1.5m and 1.3m wide with no ‘guard-cell’ present.

The excavation of several tons of rubble from the SE portion

of the interior of Structure A revealed a series of orthostatic

stone fixtures, some of which were radial to the inner wallface

while others defined irregular-shaped spaces towards

the centre of the internal space. There were some indications

of later modification of the fixtures, indicative of at least

some complexity in phasing. This chronological complexity

was further supported by the presence of stone-built features

located just within the entrance that would have blocked

routine ease-of-access and therefore may well relate to later

use of the building. The revealed wall-faces showed signs of

several discrete areas of scorching and areas of adjacent ash

and charcoal spreads, again indicative of interesting events

late in the life of the building that will be further explored

next season.

View inside souterrain passage, Structure F, The Cairns, Windwick Bay

Excavation at the outer end of the Structure A entrance

revealed a finely built and still roofed stone-lined souterrain

passage (Structure F) that had clearly been built after the

main period of use of Structure A. This c3m long curving

souterrain passage connects up with the outer end of the

Atlantic roundhouse entrance passage, reusing it as the

chamber for a souterrain. This remarkable reuse explains

why the inner end of the Structure A entrance passage had

been blocked off by a substantial wall during the episode

of infilling and abandonment of the interior of Structure

A. Effectively, this wall had formed the back (inner) wall

of the souterrain chamber. The souterrain passage was

equipped with a pair of small door-checks just in front of the

area where it converged with the former entrance passage,

apparently confirming that this was a passage intended as

a crawl space for humans, rather than a substantial drain.

A small portion of the fill of the Structure F passage was

excavated and a whale tooth pommel, possibly from a sword

handle, was found.

On the eastern side of the wall-head of Structure A, an

intramural cell of tear-drop shape in plan, was uncovered

partly overlain by the Late Iron Age Structure C building,

and opening off of the inner wall-face of the Atlantic

roundhouse. Within Structure A this takes the total of such

cells to three. Taken together with the intramural staircase,

that was uncovered in the previous season these features

indicate the architectural complexity of Structure A. This

adds weight to the probability of it being part of the complex

Atlantic Roundhouse tradition, rather than the simpler form

of Orcadian substantial roundhouse.

Work also continued on the later post-Atlantic roundhouse

suite of buildings and activity areas. Work was primarily

carried out in Structures C, ‘the workshop’ area, and E,

another later Iron Age cellular, probably domestic, building.

Structure C, a fairly large sub-oval building, had previously

been found to have been constructed into the ruins of the

Atlantic roundhouse on its NE side. Its identification as a

workshop was further strengthened as it yielded several

heat-affected surfaces and features probably relating to

metalworking, as well as a fairly substantial assemblage

of items relating to metalwork production. These included

whetstones, mould fragments, copper alloy fragments and

large copper alloy sheeting. Of particular note was the

excavation of a substantial fragment of a small copper alloy

vessel, which, on typological grounds, has the appearance

of a plain hemispherical hanging-bowl from a set of balance

scales. To the author’s knowledge there are no other Late Iron

Age examples of such a device and it may in fact represent

a Scandinavian example. This, taken together with the

unusual incidence of organically tempered pottery (though

itself not unknown in Pictish assemblages) and steatite

vessel fragments from this building, may indicate a period of

early cultural interface between ‘Pictish’ and Scandinavian

groups focused around this particular structure. Provisional

archaeomagnetic dates for certain heat-affected features

late in the Structure C sequence indicate last heating of not

later than about AD 600 and therefore any such cultural

interaction is indeed of a precociously early date. Other

elements explored in this building included a well preserved

corn-dryer structure and the unusual survival of what may

have been either a peat stack for fuel or a turf wall.

Work also continued in Structure E, a multi-cellular

structure on the southern side of the main trench, which

had again been constructed by building into the remains

of the wall fabric of the ruinous Structure A roundhouse.

Excavation of a centrally-placed and finely built rectangular

hearth afforded the opportunity to subject the hearth deposits

to archaeomagnetic dating, which supported the Late Iron

Age attribution for this building, returning a provisional date

for the last time of heating of between AD 645 and AD 795.

The building also yielded small finds of polished pebbles as

possible gaming counters, and a fine copper alloy sewing

needle.

Finally, in the previous season a magnetometer survey had

indicated a separate geophysical anomaly lying to the NE

of the main Iron Age settlement. This c30m diameter subcircular

feature was sampled by trial trenching. Two small

trenches revealed a yellow clay surface or possible cap,

one of which contained two spreads of pottery of probable

Neolithic date.

Archive: Orkney Museums Service and Orkney SMR (intended)

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership,

University of Glasgow and University of Aberdeen.