COMING SOON! A round-up of our 2008 season.
For the second year running the excavations at Hamar provided us with more questions than answers! In spite of being called the "best preserved longhouse in Scotland" (Noel Fojut, Historic Scotland)the first season on the site found very few artefacts, suggesting that the turf and soil were stripped away at some time for use elsewhere. In 2007 we discovered that structurally the house is very intriguing and that there is more than one phase.
There were last minute discoveries made in the upper room at the close of the 2006 season and in 2007 a number of walls and other linear features began to emerge. These will take some time to untangle. The unexpected structural complexity of the building put paid to our hopes that work at Hamar would be completed in two seasons!
In 2008 we hope to establish the upper area worked and how it related to other parts of the house. It seems as if there were several phases of building, suggesting a lengthy period of occupation.
A gully filled with rubble and (probably) hillwash ran around the upper end of the house. This year we hope to establish more about it. It may have been part of an earlier phase of the house. What we can say is, given that the gully was cut into the bedrock, it was a significant feat of construction and it would have kept the house very dry; the people who built this house meant to stay.
We originally believed that the lower room was a byre and we must prove this one way or the other. Floor surface samples were taken to examine back in the lab. The picture below shows the team testing the soil for magnetic susceptibility. We will be looking for biological indicators, particularly cow manure. We will also keep an eye out for evidence of industrial activities such as metal working.
Surprisingly, in the centre of the 'byre' we uncovered signs of a hearth, suggesting that this lower room was once a living area. The hearth was later stripped away and the room (presumably) put to a different use. Could this be a sign of an earlier Viking longhouse predating the current visible structure? It is early days, but already the work by Bradford student Robert Legg, who is examining the samples taken from the floor surfaces shows clear differences inside and outside the house - watch this space.
In the final days of the 2007 season (as always!) we began to unearth a number of finds. Steatite vessels, baking plates - including one of schist - and a piece of copper alloy, against which some organic material has been preserved, were all discovered in a gully in the lower room. We also discovered traces of two more hearths - one in the lower room, and one in a small annex on the western side of the house. This year we will apply archaeomagnetic dating techniques to establish when these hearths were last used. We've also taken samples from material inside the walls of the extension to identify when it was built, and others from the floor to help us discover what it was used for.
Bradford University are bringing a wide range of scientific techniques to bear at Hamar and Underhoull, many of which have been refined at the Old Scatness Broch excavations. To find out more have a look at the Old Scatness and Jarlshof Environs Project