This is sadly the last entry of the journal. The last day was spent in clearing up the site, packing away finds and generally preparing to leave. The team at Mine Howe gelled so well and worked togther with such enthusiasm and professionalism that this is an especially sad end to what has been a truly fantastic dig.

Here is a rundown of the final "state of play" of the site with some impressions of what our discoveries might mean. Of course everybody is aware that the excavation phase is just the start of the project. Now the specialists will spend many hours analysing the vast collection of material recovered from the site and the directors and visiting academics will spend equally long hours mulling over the siginificance of all that has been found. Slowly as results come in from the specialists and assorted experts,a fuller picture will emerge and maybe we will be able to finally solve some of the mysteries of the "29 steps"


Here is the full extent of the massive and impressive revetting at the terminal end of the ditch eventually revealed in Trench B.
Trench B. Judith and Dave finally got to breathe a sigh of relief as they managed to complete the excavation of the terminal end of the enclosure ditch in Trench B. Their efforts have been extremely worthwhile as even the most cursory of perusals of their finds attests. The wealth of archaeological evidence garnered from the feature has been staggering. The extreme depth of the deposits coupled with the clear stratigraphical order in which they were laid down will help to place many of the artefacts into a coherent context. The archaeologists can build a narrative of the events and activities which have created the deposits in the first place and hopefully relate this back to the lives of people in the past- one of the primary aims of archaeology after all.

One final flurry of excitement came from the extension of Trench B up hill over the mound (towards the South). Tom Muir was excavating the trench when he noticed a small gap in the section of the trench. On closer insepection this small gap turned out to lead to a large void. Much hubub ensued. The trench was extended and the topsoil removed to reveal a large slab. What was this ? Another entrance to the chambers, the remains of a constructiona feature or even another chamber. Of course the Time Team cameras were at the ready and a gaggle of excited archaeologists gathered round the slap ready for it to be lifted and its secrets to be revealed. As the slab was raaised, however, it turned out to be a shallow cist like structure, not at all what was expected. There was burnt material in the cist as potentially a fragment of burnt bone, whih may or may not be human. In any other context this find would in itself be very exceiting. But in the context of Mine Howe and being so close to the enterance to the chamber hopes were raised very high, too high as it turned out.

This is the Cist like structure found on the last day, after much excitement over what it might contain, it was a bit of a damp squib (although still very interesting from an archaeological point of view).
Trench A recieved further attention in terms of recording and planning. Time did not allow a further investigation of the strange alcove structure Ingrid mentions in Entry 18. In saying that, enough has been revealed of this feature and its associated paving to provide plenty of mulling material for those whose job it is to interpret the site. Martin continued ever downward is an effort to find the bottom of his segment of the ditch. Originally it looked as if this area of the ditch was not going to be as deep as that in trench B, but as can be seen from the photo below it was very deep indeed.

Trench A complete, note the extreme depth of the ditch and the richness of archaeological information contained in the section (ie the vertical wall of the trench).

Trench E. The depth of deposits in Trench E still remains enigmatic. There was certainly no shortage of structure such as walls and paving, which has been tentatively identified as Pictish (Late Iron Age/Early Medieval). This trench was where the majority of the exciting metal working moulds were found. In addition to the near complete mould found by Ann and Tom there were many more fragments that indicate some intensive metal working fragments. The large amount of structure, which all has to be carefully assessed, planned and recorded meant that the depth of this trench does not match that of trenches A and B. The very fact that such a large amount of structure has been found could mean that this trench reveals the most about the site in archaeological terms. As stated above this should all become much clearer as the relationships between the trenches, structures and layers are solidified during the post-excavation process.

Here is a final shot of the site, now quiet and empty without the busy beavering of the archaeologists. It always quite sad to see a site like this, after all the excitement and discovery, as well as the fun, of the excavation.
Well, thats it for the moment. No one who worked on the site was glad to see our time here come to an end. Hopefully as more and more is revealed in post-excavation we can continue to share it with you via this web-site. We hope that those of you who have been following the dig shared our excitement and enjoyment as the days progressed. From all on the team, we would like to thank you for taking and interest in our work and hope that you will follow future developements with equal interest.

Below is an excellent (the best yet !)object movie of the "knocking stone" fragment, again found in trench B. Knocking stone is a generic term for this type of artefact in Orkney. Its actual purpose may be as a mortar, a quenching trough or it may have a use as part of some other industrial activity. This is the best QTVR object movie so far and it gives a very clear idea of the shape of the artefact, making it much easier to imagine how it would have appeared when complete.

To view this object movie you need to have a QTVR plugin for your browser, this is available from Apple via this link. The model is under 200kb.

TO VIEW MODEL CLICK HERE !
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Web journal edited by Stuart Jeffrey - s.jeffrey@archaeology.arts.gla.ac.uk