Project Aims
The project combines the excavation of an Iron Age Broch and Village with extensive surveying in the surrounding area.
The key aims of the project are:
1. To date the broch and buildings using state of the art scientific methods.
2. To examine the economy of the site; what did they eat and what did they trade.
3. To explore the hinterland in order to put the broch and village into their wider setting.
4. To develop the site as one of Shetland's leading heritage sites.


The Excavation
In 2002 excavation concentrated on the earlier Iron Age roundhouses. The buildings contain a number of floors because the buildings were in use in some cases, for several hundred years. Each floor tells the story of the generations who lived there.

One building contained an Iron Age corn drying kiln. The last crop of grain to be dried had caught fire and was still in the kiln.

The most unusual find this year was the carving of a Pictish bear, found on a paving stone in the largest Wheelhouse.

Unexpectedly one of the roundhouses has proved to have a waterlogged floor. This means that plants and organic remains are well preserved and that some of the straw, lain on the floor 2000 years ago, survives.

This curious stone lined box was uncovered in one of the houses. Not only does it have 4 slabs forming the sides, but it had a stone base and the lid was anchored down with stones in each corner. When opened there were 2 pieces of carved whalebone inside. Yellow clay around it might have been from a waterproof surface. Had the tank been used for dying? The notches on the sides suggest that they might have held bans to suspend something inside.

One of the houses is egg shaped rather than round. It has drains inside one of which contained "nasty green stuff".

Grain found in 2001 in the construction layer of the broch has been dated by Radiocarbon to 400 - 200 BC. This demonstrates that broch sites in the north are much earlier than has sometimes been suggested, and raises new questions about why they were built. This summer the northern walls of the broch were excavated between the walls starting at ground level.

The wheelhouse was resurfaced and although built in the Iron Age, was reused in Viking times. The Vikings replaced earlier hearths with a Scandinavian style fire pit.

Work has continued on replicating some of the buildings from the village. This year a drystone Craftsman has begun work on trying to build one of the large roundhouses. We have about 2 metres of it on site, but we will use the archaeology to inform us as to what the roofed version might have looked like.

This summer the replica Pictish house was used for experimental metalworking and also for a study of the debris, which the process left behind.

The Living History team have experimented with brewing beer with Iron Age ingredients including bere, the most primitive form of barley, which is still available and grown in small quantities in Shetland. The Valhalla brewery in Unst made a delicious commercial version of it this summer.

A new visitor centre opened in July 2002. This meant that the site was able to offer an enhanced level of interpretation and facilities for our visitors.

This winter we will begin to consolidate the site for permanent display.

Shetland Amenity Trust co-ordinate and manage the project.
The Survey team and Visitor Services are also based at Shetland Amenity Trust.

Email: shetamenity.trust@zetnet.co.uk
Phone: 01595 694688

The excavation team is based at Dept of Archaeological Science, University of Bradford.

We would like to thank our sponsors:
BP Exploration Operating Company, European Union (European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee fund), Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Shetland Amenity Trust, Shetland Enterprise Company, Shetland Island Council Charitable Trust, University of Bradford.

Shetland Amenity Trust co-ordinate and manage the project.

The excavation team are based in the Department of Archaeological Science, University of Bradford. The Survey team and the Visitor Services are based at Shetland Amenity Trust.

We would like to thank our sponsors; BP Exploration Operating Company, European Union (European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund), Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Shetland Amenity Trust, Shetland Enterprise Company, Shetland Islands Council, University of Bradford.