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    Excavations at Milla Skerra, Sandwick, UNST : rhythms of life on iron age Shetland / edited by Olivia Lelong.

    • Title:Excavations at Milla Skerra, Sandwick, UNST : rhythms of life on iron age Shetland / edited by Olivia Lelong.
    •    
    • Variant Title:Rhythms of life in iron age Shetland
    • Other Contributors/Collections:Lelong, Olivia, editor.
    • Published/Created:Oxford : Oxbow Books, 2019.
    • Holdings

       
    • Library of Congress Subjects:Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--Unst.
      Iron age--Scotland.
      Scotland--Antiquities.
    • Description:ix, 143 pages : illustrations (some color, some black and white), maps (color) ; 31 cm
    • Summary:During the late 1st millennium BC into the early 1st millennium AD, the small island of Unst in the far north of the Shetland (and British) Isles was home to well-established and connected farming and fishing communities. The Iron Age settlement at Milla Skerra was occupied for at least 500 years before it was covered with storm-blown sand and abandoned. Although part of it had been lost to the sea, excavation revealed many details of the life of the settlement and how it was reused over many generations. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC people were constructing stone-walled yards and filling them with hearth waste and midden material. Later inhabitants built a house on top, with a paved floor and successive hearths, and more domestic rubbish accumulated inside it. Outside were new yards and workshops for crafts and metalworking, which were remodelled several times. The buildings fell into disrepair and became a dumping ground for domestic waste until the 2nd or 3rd century AD, when sand buried the settlement. Within a few generations, a man was buried beside the ruins along with some striking objects. Thousands of artefacts and environmental remains from Milla Skerra reveal the everyday practices and seasonal rhythms of the people that lived in this windswept and remote island settlement and their connections to both land and sea.
    • Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
    • ISBN:9781785703430 hardback
      1785703439 hardback
    • Contents:Machine generated contents note: 1. Uncovering Mi I la Skerra / Olivia Lelong
      lie of the land
      Layers in the landscape
      Fieldwork methods
      2. life and death of Milla Skerra / Olivia Lelong
      Chronology
      Phase 1 Intermittent activity
      3rd to early 1st millennia BC
      Phase 2 early settlement
      6th to 4th century BC
      Phase 3 midden heap covers the yard (5)
      4th to 3rd century BC
      Phase 4 New yards and a house
      2nd to early 1st century BC IS Phase 5: Continued occupation of the house (I) and remodelling of the yard (3)
      1st century BC to 1st century AD
      Phase 6 house (1) is abandoned while the yard (3) and cell (2) continue in use
      1st century AD
      Phase 7 Final use of the yard (3) and cell (2) and an informal yard (6) in the ruins of the house (I)
      late 1st to 2nd century AD
      Phase 8 Inundation
      2nd to 3rd century AD
      Phase 9 burial
      3rd to 4th century AD
      Phase 10 temporary camp and further burial
      5th to 6th centuiy AD
      3. Refining interpretations of the archaeological deposits / Jo McKenzie
      Soil micromorphology analysis / Clare Ellis
      Phosphate analysis / Jo McKenzie
      Geochemical analysis / Brendan Derham
      4. Fires and food at Milla Skerra / Catherine Smith
      carbonised plant remains / Susan Ramsay
      mammal and bird remains / Catherine Smith
      fish remains / Ruby Ceron-Carrasco
      Marine mollusca, with notes on crustacean and ecliinoidea remains / Ruby Ceron-Carrasco
      Geochemical analysis of pottery residues / Brendan Derham
      5. making, using and breaking of pots / Beverley Ballin Smith
      Methods
      Fabrics
      Evidence for manufacturing and firing
      Vessel forms
      Phase summary
      Discussion
      Catalogue of the illustrated pottery
      6. Craftwork at Milla Skerra: metalworking and bone, stone and iron tools / Anthony Newton
      bog ore and slag / Dawn McLaren
      block tuyere / Dawn McLaren
      Pumice artefacts / Beverley Ballin Smith
      Provenance of the pumice / Anthony Newton
      Re-worked pottery sherds / Beverley Ballin Smith
      Steatite artefacts / Amanda Forster
      Heavy stone tools / Ann Clarke
      Struck quartz / Torben Bjarke Ballin
      Objects made of iron and bone / Fraser Hunter
      7. Technologies of the self: painted pebbles, ornaments and the burial / Amanda Forster
      Painted pebbles
      Ornaments in shale, glass and marine ivory
      burial / Paul Duffy
      Technologies of the self
      Conclusions
      8. Rhythms of life at Milla Skerra / Olivia Lelong
      Building and rebuilding
      Rhythms of food production and craft work
      Middens and the significance of stuff
      Seasonal rhythms
      character of the settlement
      Life after death.
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