Welcome to issue No. 1 of our newsletter, keeping you up-to-date with all things Swandro. Although we're not digging at the moment there's still plenty to tell you about - here's an update on what happened at Swandro during the 2017 dig season. You can download a more complete version in pdf format from our website.
The Chambered Tomb
The chambered tomb at Swandro is suffering badly from ongoing coastal erosion, with more and more of the tomb walls on the seaward side disappearing every year. This year we concentrated on the entrance passageway, located at the top of the storm beach, the upper levels of which had been disturbed probably in the Viking period, since a coin of EANRED, King of Northumbria 810-840 AD, were found there in a previous season, along with the bones of several cats (cats are an Iron Age introduction to Orkney, so can't relate to the Neolithic use of the tomb).
Work this year showed that there's another building, not part of the chambered tomb, built up against its entrance. This may possibly be a souterrain (or earthhouse as they're known in Orkney -confusingly, neither a house nor built of earth), an underground building that everyone assumes is ritual/religious. They turn up surprisingly often inserted into chambered tombs, and most of the excavated examples are Iron Age. It may however also be another type of Iron Age building - for example the chambered tomb at Quanterness, just outside Kirkwall, had an Iron Age roundhouse built across its entrance in a similar way.
Peedie Iron Age Roundhouse (Structure 2)
The Late Iron Age roundhouse is also badly damaged by coastal erosion with most of the walling on the seaward side already destroyed.
This building had a flagged floor with a large stone tank set into it, and produced this year's star find, a Roman coin: to be precise a Nummus of Constans dating to 348 – 350 AD. This caused quite a flurry of interest with worldwide media coverage – if you Google 'Swandro Roman Coin' you'll see what I mean, but one of the best pieces was on the BBC news website
Pictish Smithy (Structure 3)
The Pictish Smithy continued to provide evidence of high-status metalworking which got our archaeometallurgist Dr Gerry McDonnell very excited. The smithy was being used for fire-welding, which is a sophisticated and skilled iron working technique, and leaves behind distinctive traces in the form of spheroidal slag.
The crucible fragments and slag from the Pictish smithy at Swandro are really interesting and unusual: the Picts are known for making copper alloys (or to the non-specialist, bronze), specifically tin/copper alloy and tin/lead/copper alloys. This is NOT what's going on in the Pictish period (which is roughly abut c.AD200 – AD800) at Swandro – what we have is the production of brass (zinc/copper alloy) which isn't supposed to occur until the Viking period, when it was reintroduced Britain, as a result of reopening trade routes to the east.
The smithy also produced hammerscale, which is all the bits that flake off a bit of hot iron when you’re whacking it with a hammer, proof that the smithy was used for forging iron, corroborated by the star find from the smithy, a large beach cobble that had probably been set upright next to the hearth to and was used as an anvil, as you can see from the dents and damage in this photo:
And finally, if you're short of an idea for a Xmas present, we have the answer for you -now available to buy via our website are prints of an original reconstruction drawing of the Pictish Smithy at Swandro by renowned archaeological illustrator Alan R Braby, who is also one of the Swandro team. The reconstruction is based on excavated archaeological evidence - you can even see the anvil in use in the foreground - and will eventually feature in the site publication. All proceeds from the sale of these prints goes to help fund next year's excavation and we can post them rolled up in a tube anywhere in the world – get your copy now!
Please make a donation towards funding the 2018 excavation. You can donate online using your credit/debit card or your PayPal account. For other donation options please visit our website.
