The start

It hardly seems like two years have passed since we last finished the excavations at Minehowe and the film crews of Time Team left. There were so many unanswered questions from the 2000 excavations and many new ones that the post-excavation analysis has thrown up. Hopefully the excavations this year will shed more light on the mystery of Minehowe.

Excavation starts

Initial cleaning of new area

New paving being revealed

Round Howe

The broch of Round Howe lies at one end of Long Howe, a long glacial moraine which separates Round Howe from Minehowe. The site was investigated by James Farrer, a famous antiquarian, in the mid 19th century. As was usual for Farrer all he seemed to do was use his workmen to clear out the centre of the broch and leave the actual recording of the site to George Petrie, a local estate factor. Unfortunately for us, Petrie’s record of this site is very scant and seems to consist of only two sketch plans of the site and one schematic section through the mound. Petrie’s plans however do seem to show some form of broch structure, complete with thick walls, an entrance and intra-mural chambers, perhaps sitting on a natural mound. Surrounding the broch is an enclosure. Since Farrer’s investigations the site has suffered from greater damage. This is not coastal erosion as is the case for so many Orcadian sites, but road damage. The late 19th century road that bypasses Minehowe actually cuts through the middle of Round Howe and seems to have removed most of the actual broch and cut a swath through the surrounding enclosure. Despite this we hope that the structures and settlement that usually surround brochs in Orkney will still survive and allow us to get some dating evidence in order to relate Round Howe to Minehowe. The excavation of Round Howe is being supervised by Dave Murray with the help of Martin Carruthers, a PhD student whose research includes brochs (very handy), and two local archaeologists Judith Robertson and Tom Whalley. Initially a long strip trench has been opened across the site which extends from the remains of what we presume is the central broch mound, across the surrounding enclosure, where we hope to find the remains of associated structures and over the surrounding bank. This trench is almost 30 metres long and two metres wide. As the machine removed the overlying turf we half expected to find stonework showing up almost immediately. However initially apart from the top of the bank showing at the south end of the trench very little appeared to show. We thought that a good clean up and trowelling back would help, but after the initial clean there was still no obvious structures showing. Even more strangely there were no finds being made like pottery, bone or slag. On every other broch site that has been excavated there has been a plethora of finds made. It seems very unlikely that Farrer had cleared away all the finds from the whole site so this is rather mystifying. As the first week drew to a close at Round Howe the only proper find is a single piece of worked pumice – still no pottery or other finds they we had expected. The surrounding bank appears to have no real structure to it and seems to be just a dump of material. The rise at the north end of the trench which we presumed was either spoil from the road construction or Petrie’s excavation, has turned out to be a natural rise. This could be the mound that Petrie showed the broch was sitting on, but still no sign of any proper structure. The team however are still optimistic and we plan to open another long trench at right angles to the first one next week.

Petrie's plans of Round Howe

Martin pondering the north end of the trench

Tom excavating the encircling bank

Back at Minehowe

Planning in the extension to Trench E

Mary's stone box

Start of week 2

And still the good weather continues. Apart from a few light showers and some overnight rain the weather has so far been exceptionally good. The only problem now is the midges. With the lack of wind they are a constant irritation. Still the promise of new finds and structures keep us all going. And as expected the first really nice find has turned up. Antonia was continuing to remove some of the layers that covered the paving Marion had started to uncover, when she noticed a small green object. Careful cleaning around this revealed this to be part of a copper alloy finger ring. This was photographed in situ and meticulously removed for on sit conservation by Julie.

Kerry meanwhile has uncovered further collapsed walls that may be part of the earlier structure we think underlies the Pictish house. These at present only appear to be isolated lengths and do not appear to form any coherent structure. Further excavation should shed light on this.
Jack is removing the remains of the late Iron Age or Pictish wall which seemed to separate the structures at the east side of the original trench from the agricultural soils to the west. Under this he has uncovered the remains of a very truncated and disturbed stone box. He is at present sectioning this feature and removing half of the contents. All of the contents of this feature and samples of every different soil or context on site is being sampled and sent to Dr Ingrid Mainland, our environmental specialist. Ingrid has kindly volunteered her services for the four weeks of the excavation to do on-site environmental work. She has set up her sieving and flotation unit at the nearby farm of Langskaill. Here she has use of several sheds for sorting, laying out and drying environmental samples in. Hopefully the samples being processed should reveal carbonised plant remains that we help us build a picture of the crops being grown near the site and the past environment. The sieved samples should also pick up smaller animal bones and other small objects that are missed during actual excavation.

Discovery of bronze ring

Jack excavating the remains of his stone box

Back at Round Howe

With the help of Douglas and his JCB a new trench has been opened which hopefully will produce more than the last trench. This trench extends from the end of Long Howe across the enclosure and up to where we hope the remains of the broch will be. Almost straight away stonework has been revealed at the west end of this trench where we think the broch should be. So hopes are presently high. Further down the trench there also seems to be a few features showing up, although once again the removal of the turf and topsoil has revealed what appears to be mainly sterile natural subsoil. Maybe as Douglas Paterson Junior says “we should be digging on the other side of the road”!!!

Later that week…… The stonework revealed in the new trench at Round Howe has turned out to be a nice rectangular structure, but unfortunately it appears to two millennium too late!!!! Finds from this structure include part of a shovel, an electric light bulb and a pair of pliers! There is no record or local knowledge of any structure on the site and none of the maps we have of the area indicate the presence of any relatively recent building on the site. Perhaps this was a shelter built for the workmen who created the new road. If by the end of the week nothing is found in this trench we will investigate the remains on the other side of the road, however the lack of any prehistoric finds from the trenches is making us doubt the validity of Farrer’s and Petrie’s excavations. Did they really find a broch or did they discover something more recent but did not fully understand and concocted a story and plan to fit in with what they expected to find. Next week should solve this mystery.

STOP PRESS - Dave has been cleaning up the section of the original trench at Round Howe ready for drawing and noticed a cut or feature which seems to underlie what at first appeared to be in situ natural. This natural now appears to redeposited and may result from the road construction. Within the cut or feature, which may be part of a ditch-like feature, Dave has found a hollowed out stone like a small water trough. This type of find alone is very difficult to date as similar objects can be found on prehistoric sites but equally were used up to the 19th century. We now need to excavate more of this feature or ditch to try and get more dating evidence. Perhaps we still have a broch.

Later this week…... The second trench at Round Howe has still failed to locate anything vaguely prehistoric, so again with the help of Douglas and his JCB a new trench has been opened on the other side of the road. There is again some stonework starting to show, so perhaps this time we’ll be lucky. Next week should provide the answer.

Initial cleaning of the new trench with Long Howe in the background

Very late rectangular structure under excavation!

The stone basin found in Dave's feature/ditch section

Back at Minehowe

Over the last week the excavation has also been the site of an archaeology fieldschool being run through Orkney College. Seven ‘students’ of all different ages and backgrounds have come to Orkney from all over the country to be taught the basics of excavation. Most of their time has been spent doing actual excavation in the main trench, but they have also been taught the basics of finds and site recording, surveying and drawing. The field school has also included field trips to other sites throughout Orkney and an afternoon with Caroline Wickham-Jones, the foremost authority in Scotland on worked stone and flint tools, who recently moved to Orkney. Caroline taught the students about post-excavation analysis, the role of museums in archaeology and her favourite topic, flint artefacts. Although most of the students have never excavated before they are all showing great promise and even in the short time they have been with us have developed their understanding of the processes of archaeological excavation. I think and hope they will all do more archaeology in the future. No doubt the wonderful weather we have had again this week has also added to their experience. Today (Friday) the inevitable fog and drizzle arrived though even this does not appear to have dampened anyone’s enthusiasm, (apart from Dr Ingrid Mainland who is meant to be leaving us for a few days to attend a conference and give a paper. The fog has disrupted flights and it looks as if Ingrid will have to catch the boat and drive south).

STOP PRESS……..
Whilst sorting some of the pottery that had been just cleaned, Julie, the finds assistant, brought to our attention a small sherd of very fine pottery. This appears to be a piece of Roman Samian Ware which could be part of a flagon!! This would fit in with some of the other Roman or Romano-British finds from the 2000 excavations. Although other sherds of Samian Ware have been found in Orkney, on some broch sites, they are still fairly rare. This again would seem to indicate the high status of Minehowe.

Post-script…
A Roman pottery specialist visiting Orkney has looked at this pottery and said that it is in fact not Samian after all, but a slightly lesser cousin to Samian ware, colour-coated ware probably from a cup or beaker produced somewhere near Oxford!!

Late area of paving

Extent of late paving

Fieldschool getting down to digging