Categories: Archaeology and Palaeoenvironment, Articles, Orkney: Gateway to the Atlantic, United Kingdom
Dr Julie Bond from the University of Bradford, alongside staff and students of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences at the University are battling against erosion to uncover the secrets of an Iron Age Settlement and its surrounding area, on the Scottish island of Rousay, Orkney.
The site, at the Knowe of Swandro, was once a large settlement occupied from around 1000BC to AD1200 and consists of Iron Age roundhouses, Pictish buildings, a Viking settlement and a Norse Long Hall, and is considered an area of extreme importance due to the insight the dig can provide on the use of existing sites by Scandinavian settlers. Dr Steve Dockrill [Honorary Researcher] warns that the project is a race against tide and time: “ A substantial Iron Age roundhouse, which forms the focus of a village-like settlement is being eroded by the sea. The large roundhouse had been lived in by generations for a millennium or more, and shows signs of a number of building events modifying the structure.” Although coastal erosion is the biggest threat to unearthing sites such as these, it also provides a unique opportunity to investigate the construction of the roundhouse and surrounding settlement. Dr Dockrill the co-director remarks "The site is rich in cultural material and evidence for the use of land and sea in terms of agriculture and fishing. This site is being destroyed by the sea. Over a third of the roundhouse has been lost to coastal erosion. Despite this we are uncovering new evidence for life in the Iron Age and are using the latest technology to record the archaeological evidence before it vanishes”.
