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Summary of 2011’s excavations at Nybster Broch
A classic broch tower is a cooling-tower-shaped drystone-built structure, unique to Scotland, and iconic of that nation’s Iron Age. Over 200 of the roughly 700 brochs in Scotland are to be found in Caithness, which in consequence has the highest … Continue reading
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Initial Results of Wet Sieving
AOC’s post-excavation specialist Jackaline Robertson has recently analysed the 34 bulk soil samples that were taken during 2011’s excavations at Nybster Broch. Both artefactual and environmental material were extracted from the soil. Among the more interesting finds were an intact … Continue reading
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Photos from the excavations
For anyone keen to see more photos of the excavations, you can view albums from all four weeks spent at Nybster at www.facebook.com/aocarchaeology. You can view these albums even if you don’t use Facebook by following the links below: Nybster … Continue reading
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Returfed and ready to go
We spent today minimising evidence of our excavations: backfilling and returfing our trenches. The last few hardy volunteers made a sterling effort and we are grateful for their unflagging enthusiasm. Special thanks go to two of today’s volunteers: Peter came … Continue reading
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Let them eat cake!
Second last day on site was a mixture of finishing excavation, recording and continuing with backfilling. We welcomed back Roland and Jenny who drove all the way back up from Beauly. Unfortunately Roland was not rewarded with a Pictish grave! … Continue reading
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Disentangling Nybster
We have reached that point in the excavation where we need to resolve the important questions that our Pictish building is presenting us with. As usual, things are more complicated than they appeared at ground level, and now we need … Continue reading
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Pottery, puddles and paving
The weather made site pretty unpleasant again today, but our trusty trowellers pushed on until the site became unworkable. Good progress was made in both the Jelly Baby house and the building to the north west of it. Local volunteer … Continue reading
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Picking apart the Picts
Another wet and windy day on site but we still had a core group of around ten volunteers. Visitor numbers were also very high with a good number coming down to site after visiting the Caithness Broch Centre. Colin continued … Continue reading
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Wet weather gear recommended…
We arrived on site this morning to blustery wind and rain, but had a good team on hand who persevered throughout the less than favourable conditions. We were all rather muddy by 5pm, but our determination was rewarded with a … Continue reading
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The first week: Picts, princes and people
Our first week on site has been brilliant. The excavations are taking place as the Caithness Archaeological Trust and the Auckengill Heritage Trust have a strong desire to encourage interest in the archaeology in and around Auckengill and Keiss. Their … Continue reading
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