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Excavations at Milla Skerra, Sandwick, UNST : rhythms of life on iron age Shetland / edited by Olivia Lelong.
Bibliographic Record Display
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Title:Excavations at Milla Skerra, Sandwick, UNST : rhythms of life on iron age Shetland / edited by Olivia Lelong.
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Variant Title:Rhythms of life in iron age Shetland
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Other Contributors/Collections:Lelong, Olivia, editor.
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Published/Created:Oxford : Oxbow Books, 2019.
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Holdings
Holdings Record Display
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Location:KOERNER LIBRARY stacks (Floor 1)Where is this?
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Call Number: GN780.22.G7 E93 2019
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Number of Items:1
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Status:Available
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Location:KOERNER LIBRARY stacks (Floor 1)Where is this?
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Library of Congress Subjects:Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--Unst.
Iron age--Scotland.
Scotland--Antiquities.
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Description:ix, 143 pages : illustrations (some color, some black and white), maps (color) ; 31 cm
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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.
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Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
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ISBN:9781785703430 hardback
1785703439 hardback
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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.