Life and Death in Assynt's Past

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Gordon has been out at the dig in all this terrible weather we’re having and has sent in these fascinating findings:

• The hearth may not be a hearth, but a floor made up of a lot of material from a hearth!
• The post holes in that floor are too small and shallow to hold the cruck frame but may have held less weighty timbers associated with furniture or the roof.
• The big central post pad isn’t a post pad but a hearth in the middle of the area where the floor appears to have been destroyed!  But why has it got two small stone lined and capped channels cut into the ground running away from it, one down to the byre and one across to, and possibly through, the wall, the latter capped with clay? Drains perhaps but why would you drain a hearth?  Flues then, but how would they work since they seem to stop at the edge of the hearth stone?  And what was the pile of burnt and unburnt clay stacked nearby against the wall for?
• And we found a possible belt buckle yesterday as per photo!

So the building is becoming even more of a mystery, what seemed to be a straight forward dwelling with the fireplace and the post holes for the roof structure where we would expectthem to be  is now turning into something other.  Let’s see where the evidence takes us to come up with final conclusions on what this home would have looked like and how a family would have lived in it.

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The people who lived in our house/byre at Glenleraig probably wore boots with hobnails in the heels and made from leather, if the artefact dug out of the compacted floor is what it appears to be after analysis back at AOC’s lab.

This picture shows what we believe to be a hobnail out of the heel with the remainder of the boot lying in the container below.  It is of a small size so had it belonged to a small adult or even a child? Boots must surely have been prized possessions at this time so how did this one get buried in the floor here?  Had a child hidden it to get out of wearing it? Had it been lost under the bed?  Had it been left behind in the rush to clear out of the property when the family had been given notice to quit?

The photo on the right perhaps needs a little imagination but we think that it is the heel of the boot with the leather in three pieces around it.  We’re looking forward to the results of the analysis which will tell us more about size, how it was made and something about the wearer perhaps.

We have also uncovered various pieces of pottery, some pieces that look as though they might fit together to make a plate which had obviously been made in a pottery rather than on-site like the iron age and neolithic people’s pots.  These pieces of pottery are well glazed in a cream colour with some of the shards showing a cobalt blue border pattern.  There are no makers marks on the pottery but they must have been traded from a fair distance away as there is no known evidence of potteries nearby; did they arrive by sea or by traders who brought in wares on the back of a pony.  Or had the family bought these fine pieces at a market when they had travelled out to sell an animal perhaps.?

These pieces of broken plates were found on the surface of the earth floor in the living area of the building.  Does this indicate that they were broken as the family were leaving their home for the last time so didn’t bother to clear the pieces away?  Was it a part of the family’s best table ware, the breaking of which would have added insult to injury at this traumatic time in their lives?

Another find was this lovely mug but I am to be convinced that a piece of this design would have been owned by people in the early 1800s.  There is evidence of a handle with flower sprigs around it and the shape is definitely a straight sided beaker.  It is quite fine and light weight so I would think that it would have been slip cast in a mould.  The colour is similar to the other pieces of plate though so we shall just have to await the analysis.  Whoever did own this piece of pottery though would I am sure have been exceedingly saddened when it broke.

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We’re now in the last of the three digs in the Life and Death in Assynt project and it’s obvious that enthusiasm is still high for this exploration into past lives.  We have moved forward along the timeline to our near history:  excavating a longhouse which was cleared of its inhabitants to make way for sheep during the Highland Clearances.

The first couple of days were a little wet but nothing like the downpours suffered at Borralan, so everyone was very happy taking off the turf and bracken covering the longhouse structure under investigation.  The bracken roots are particularly difficult to remove without damaging the archaeology because they seem to be able to entangle themselves in and around the stonework and earth floor.

I had an enjoyable visit finding out about discoveries so far and what everyone had been doing.  We now have Erlend leading this dig ably assisted by Jake and also with the sterling efforts of nine volunteers including one young teenager on work experience.   When I asked her what she thought of it so far she answered  ‘it’s cool’ and  ‘it’s far better than my classmates work experiences!’ 

The structure being excavated is a longhouse type structure which appears to have an area at one end for human habitation and  a byre at the other end  for the animals.  There’s a raised area for a cow or other animal to stand on and a neatly made drain which would take all the waste away down hill.  Quite how the waste got through the wall isn’t clear yet but I’m sure all will be revealed.

At the top of the structure, where the people would have lived, the careful removal of bracken and other debris is revealing a smooth,earth floor surface which appears reddish near the gable end, indicative of heat and a possible fire place.  There are tumbled stones in the middle of the gable which could have been a chimney or could just be tumbled stones, more will be revealed later.

So the scene is set for the team to uncover all the secrets this long ago home has to show us: who might have lived here?  What did they eat?  What did they wear? How did they spend their time?  Did they trade for goods from outside the area? In fact, what were their lives like?

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As part of our investigations into how people lived and died in Assynt’s past, we are endeavouring to find out how they made pottery, and yesterday saw the first part of what we hope may evolve into some full-blown experimental archaeology. The hypothesis to be tested was that neolithic ceramicists must have used kilns of some sort, and we set about refuting it by showing that in fact pots can be fired on an ordinary open fire. We lit the fire at 10.30, well in advance of Elphin’s chicken race (OK, we know the chicken race isn’t a truly authentic neolithic kind of thing, but there wasn’t a convenient swan race or pig race or any other kind of race to fire our pots alongside, so a chicken race just had to do).

By noon we had authentic-looking neolithic pot shards and we now understand why so much broken pottery is found at dig sites… Watch this!

Before...

...and after.

Having mastered how to make pots go pop, we turned our hands to trying to keep them in one piece. This was a bit more challenging. We tried various different speeds of entry into the fire, with little effect.

To our surprise, and to the delight of those who had wielded the spades, the only pots which seemed to be able to withstand the fire were those made from clay that had been dug up in Elphin, close to where Lawrence the goat was buried. As one onlooker pointed out, it’s well known that goats do not explode. It seems this characteristic of Lawrence must have impregnated the clay. Until someone comes up with a better one, that’s our theory and we’re sticking to it. 

Brenda seemed to find it a bit disappointing that the pots kept exploding. Perhaps that’s because she’s a potter. Everyone else thought it was highly entertaining.But eventually we succumbed to her suggestions to try a different approach.

We let the fire die down and cool a bit, then put warmed pots on and built the fire up again around them. Just before it started going like a rocket, we thought we’d better find something to slow it down. Grass cuttings were to hand, and, along with a huge amount of smoke, we managed to create a new dimension to the spectacle. By the end of the day, as the fire burned itself down, a couple of pots seemed to remain, miraculously unexploded, in among the embers.

Our hypothesis has been refuted, but we now think we know why people invented kilns. Further experiments will follow.

As part of the ‘how people lived back then’ thread of the project, on November 12 we will be doing textiles – every stage of wool handling from flock to sock, plus a bit of basket work thrown in, and we’ll be learning some old Gaelic songs as well. All day in Lochinver hall, and then a ceilidh in the evening at Drumbeg. Bring your spindle.

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How glorious it will turn out to be, we do not know, but buckets of Assynt mud have been taken away for analysis in Edinburgh. Other mud has been secreted away somewhere in Raffin. This is becoming the Life, Death and Mud in Assynt’s Past project.

Alert readers may have noticed a hiatus in this diary. This coincides with a pause in the archaeological activity, and ramblings and musings will continue again next week, when the Glenleraig pre-clearance house will begin to be revealed. For now, let us muse a little longer on the muddy stuff.

There’s modern not-sure-quite-where-from mud, which potter Brenda Gibson, who we’re lucky enough to have as a project officer, has been getting people to make into pots ready for them to be fired in a neolithic pit kiln at Elphin on Saturday 24 September. We have been supplied with a picture of what this will look like and the project team are all frantically at work on our hats to make sure we will look the part on Saturday. Don’t forget your chicken when you come to the pot firing – the Elphin chicken race will be going on at the same time! It’s all shaping up to be a day to remember.

Pot firing neolithic style (with hat)

There’s Clachtoll mud, which is extremely stinky clay. We hope it might clean up over the winter, and then we are going to do experiments with it to see if we can turn it into anything remotely resembling the pottery we found at Clachtoll broch.

There’s also Elphin mud, and this likewise will be experimented with by Brenda.

The final selection of mud, which has been whipped away to Edinburgh for protection and analysis results from the excavation of the cairn at Loch Borralan, which was desperately wet throughout, until (just to rub the archaeologists’ noses in it) the penultimate day of the dig, which was gloriously sunny.

Despite the vaguaries of the weather, the Borralan dig became steadily more interesting as it progressed, and towards the end, some deposits were revealed that may have been missed by the enthusiasm of the early twentieth century excavation. Let’s hope that they may hold some interesting material, although as Gordon Sleight pointed out, it’s hard to tell what they may contain when they are, sorry, no other word for it, mud!

These deposits were found in the cell at the back of the main chamber, and in the very small part of the doorway between the main chamber and the antechamber which could be accessed from around the sides of the enormous stones that block the way.  The doorway contained layered deposits. Gordon’s description of these is as follows, from the top downwards:

• some fallen and washed down peat and other debris
• a compacted mix of shattered stone fragments, sand, grit and clay (perhaps from the time of the collapse of the cairn roof?)
• a dark layer with charcoal (perhaps deposits from a period when cairn was in use?)

The dark layer at the bottom could, we hope, produce some very small finds not noticed when excavating it, and it could also provide dating evidence and signs of former use. If so, it will be glorious mud indeed!

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Fill with water, add bubble bath, strip off and soak...

The chambered cairn resembles a deep Jacuzzi. Add bubble-bath, heat it up a bit, and you could sit there for hours.

I needed a hot tub after today, I can tell you that for free, gratis and for nothing. And that was despite skiving out at 2 pm, catching the post bus home. I can’t imagine how filthy I’d have been if I’d stayed until 5. Sandy the Post was very diplomatic as I smeared my muddiness all over his seats. And when I got back I discovered that not only were my waterproofs not remotely waterproof (actually, I had noticed that earlier), but they were not mud-proof either. Quite how all the clothes inside had got quite so covered in peat-sog is still something I’m not clear about.

My muddiness was due to my efforts to dig a drainage channel, or rather to noodle soil out to create a drainage crack between a tumble of rocks in order to encourage some of the rain gathering in puddles to make its way off and away down the slope into Loch Borralan where it belongs. The rain has turned the soil to the consistency of porridge and most of it seemed to smear itself over me, while the cracks between the stones remained resolutely sealed.

But did I care about my failure? Not a bit. Because, before my very eyes, what had been a narrow passage into the chamber, blocked by tumbled rock, transformed into a lofty and exciting space. John Barber, with a waft of his imaginative magic wand, lifted the jumble of stones, one by one, and with them, created an ante-chamber. Walling, corbelling, portal stones, lintels – and there it was.

Those Neolithic temple-goers didn’t just push their way up the passage into the chamber, they had a place to pause, neither in the chill of outside nor fully in the glow of inside. Perhaps that’s as far as most of them would get – with real magic happening in the inner realm, and visitors met in this interim space. Or maybe it’s where you left your wellies and your rain coat before entering the steam room.

I’ve always fancied an ante-chamber. Far better than a porch. Much subtler than a lobby. Indescribably more sophisticated than a changing room. Imagine what plotting and scheming happened there! Imagine the straightening of costumes, deep breaths taken before the curtain was switched aside and the inner sanctum was revealed!

What’s even more exciting is that Mr Alexander Curle, who excavated the site in 1909 seems to have missed it. As he scraped his way down to the bedrock of the chamber and tossed the contents away (to him it was debris, unknowing that we a century later would curse him for chucking all those interesting carbon-datable floor deposits), he left what he assumed was just a passage into the chamber. So underneath the jumble of stones could be genuine Neolithic material. The bones of one of those loiterers in the lobby, perhaps those who hadn’t quite managed to get their clarty dregs off yet…

Neolithic hot tub anyone?

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I did say the weather was bad, here’s Gordon’s message from this morning:

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The weather conditions at the cairn dig really have been a test of endurance.  At one point, Gordon the Project Manager, was lathered with so much midge cream that as fast as he was drawing plans of the cairn he realised the side of his hand was rubbing out his work.  Midges, rain and mud have been the order of the week so far.

Talking with Gordon and Charlotte from AOC I’m impressed by their enthusiasm to go on.  I’d have been away home but happy to say the diggers are making progress.  Monday saw the collapsed roof stones removed from the chamber.  A combination of brains and brawn did the trick with string and planks of wood in place to slide the stones along and some heaving and pushing to get these out of the way.  With the rubble cleared the remains of a low wall emerged in front of the unusual cell structure found early last week.  The mystery of this structure continues, with this new find adding to the puzzle. Further surveys of the chamber are planned for the week.

The passageway has also had attention so far this week.  The team have been clearing away rubble and are now reaching a level of stones that are in their original positions.  More work is planned to determine the angle of the passageway.

So, the conditions may have brought their own challenges but  the team have still managed to find more remains of the structure.  And when Gordon asked the digging team: we are having fun , aren’t we? he was met with a resounding YES!

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Brenda’s here again –

We were mobbed out with potters today at Elphin village hall where everyone had a great time getting mucky and smelly with the clay we had dug  earlier last week.  We’ll have to wait until the firing on the 24th Sept at Chicken Day to see if they’ll hold together.  I think perhaps the clay needs a bit more work to get it into a form that is usable so I’ll slake it and seive it and add things to it so that we can perhaps give it another try next year.  Using modern clay, the group showed lots of skill and imagination in turning out creations that would have possibly been used in the neolithic age – who’s to say?

Thanks to the Elphin folk for the hospitality and use of their Hall.  It’s great to see even more people engaging with this archaeological project  and thinking about the people who lived and worked in this area so long ago.

Kay and Stuart from Elphin have sent these kind words:

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Yesterday it rained rather a lot in Assynt but that didn’t deter 19 primary 4 to 7 pupils and staff from Lochinver Primary School from exploring the cairn dig site.  According to the staff it was midges, mud and rain all the way and the kids just loved it.  Kitted out in wet weather gear they toured the site before getting their hands dirty doing some digging.

And some useful information they uncovered too.  A test pit they dug revealed that what the archaeologists had surveyed as a possible tail of a long cairn turned out to be bedrock.  So it can be said with more certainty that what could have been evidence of a long cairn is instead a natural feature.

Identifying cairns was part of the trip too with the children encouraged to stand on what they thought were other cairns in the nearby landscape.  Going off at a pace and spotting the difference between a bit of mound and a  real life cairn proved lots of fun.

And are any of the pupils budding archaeologists?  Maybe said some of the children but only if  there are sacrifices and cannibals involved and if you get to be famous and can drive a lambourgini!