Field Visit

Date May 2012

Event ID 993499

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/993499

HU 326 900 (Beorgs of Uyea) and HU 316 848 (Midfield) As part of ongoing preparations for a future research project – Neolithic Felsite Quarrying in North Roe – selected areas of North Roe were inspected during May 2012. The purpose of this future work should be to shed light on: 1) felsite quarrying technology and organisation; 2) felsite blank, preform and tool technology and organisation; 3) felsite exchange within North Roe/Shetland, and beyond; 4) dating the prehistoric exploitation of felsite; and 5) cosmology.

The purpose of this year’s visit was to gather evidence for the manufacture of stone tools using rock quarried from a suite of felsite and other dykes, particularly in the Beorgs of Uyea and Midfield areas. The particular focus was to set petrographic evidence in a framework of geomorphological, geological and archaeological evidence in the field, in order to evaluate the potential for differentiation between products from archaeological sites and geological outcrops.

The work had two sets of results: 1) providing answers to the questions defined prior to the survey (above), and 2) as a by-product of the geological work, finding and defining new archaeological locations in the Midfield area. Following geological characterization of the inspected felsite outcrops and the collected hand samples, it was possible to preliminarily conclude that it should be possible to link individual felsite artefacts to specific geological outcrops or, at least, limited suites of dykes. This is of great importance to future discussions of the distribution of felsite artefacts across Shetland (felsite was probably not ‘exported’ out of the Shetland archipelago), felsite exchange, and social organisation within the island group.

As mentioned in DES 2011 (173) two clusters of felsite workshops are known on Midfield’s eastern flank, both associated with groups of quarry pits. This year, another group of quarry pits was located, this time on the northern flanks of Midfield, towards Ronas Hill. This site (Midfield 3) needs further attention before it is possible to say anything about specific activities, workshops, or the type of artefacts produced. To access the Midfield sites, it was necessary to cross Uyea Scord from Collafirth Hill. When crossing this plateau, two small concentrations of artefacts were noticed, and the finds collected. The composition of one assemblage was c1:10 quartz to felsite flakes, whereas the other had the opposite composition. The important points regarding these two collections are: 1) that there is generally no quartz near the quarries themselves, and 2) that the recovered felsite flakes are small and fine, possibly relating to what Vemming Hansen and Madsen (1983) termed final shaping, in contrast to the production of rough-outs and preforms, which took place at the quarry workshops. This possible spatial separation of the different stages of the reduction of felsite axeheads needs further investigation, and the plateau of Scord of Uyea should be surveyed in greater detail.

Fieldwork in the Midfield area is planned for Spring/Summer 2013. The principal investigator of this work is Professor Gabriel Cooney, University College Dublin.

Archive: RCAHMS and/or Shetland Amenity Trust (intended)

Torben Bjarke Ballin, Lithic Research/University of Bradford

Vin Davis, Implement Petrology Group

2012