Monument record 8492 - Eilean an Taighe, Shiants

ongoing excavations by Pat Foster, sponsored by Adam Nicholson.

Desk-top asssessment
Barrowman 2005, 72

DES 2000: During the first two weeks of June 2000 an archaeological landscape survey and the partial excavation of a blackhouse complex was undertaken on the Shiant Islands with a team of MA students and professionals from the Czech Republic.
A blackhouse farmstead complex on House Island, composed of a longhouse of 7.5 x 3m with barns built against the N and S long walls, a separate kiln house and two other possibly assoociated outbuildings, were chosen for excavation.
The blackhouse
Removal of turf revealed baked clay floors with three central hearths, a stone drain running the full length of the building at the edge of the S wall, and several stone partition foundations running across the interior. A deposit of unbaked clay at the E end of the building may have been a byre deposit or post-abandonment material from the decayed roof. A sondage revealed that there was a deep and complex sequence of deposits and floor levels, including a central stone-lined drain below the revealed level of the excavation. Excavation was terminated at this point and the site was recorded and covered.
The north barn.
Removal of the turf revealed a massive limpet shell midden, 0.2m thick, occupying the E half of the building, spreading over the walls and out through the N entrance. The W end of the building was occupied with soil and wall-collapse stone rubble. Under this midden, a thin layer of soil may have represented the use of the barn for animals or storage after its construction. Under this soil and the barn walls was a further 0.35m thick limpet shell midden occupying the E area. Stonework of earlier structures with associated soils were revealed at the base of the midden, most likely representing earlier medieval or late post-medieval structures and occupation. These levels were recorded at the surface, but not investigated.
Finds.
A large number of iron finds that include the rivets from a wooden boat were found in the post-abandonment soils, and it is most likely that they originate from a section of a wooden boat incorporated into the roof thatch - a not uncommon practice. A large iron spike hollowed at one end for a shaft may be connected with the kelp industry. There are also several plate fragments from an iron cauldron. Also found were a half rotary flat millstone locally made from stone found on Mary Island, a number of stone flakes from stone working, but not of local origin, and a number of flint strike-a-lights. There are also numerous wine bottle fragments along with fragments from at least one wine glass. A few splinters of window pane indicate a light set in the thatch. The most interesting find is a large flattened round (0.26m across and 0.13m thick) sandstone cobble found face down in soil Phase E of the sondage. On the face was pecked a cross within a circle: it is obviously of Early Christian origin and may date from around the 7th century AD. The presence of the stone gives some substance to the accounts of an early chapel and possible hermitic cell on the islands. In the lower levels of the lower midden on the north barn was a mid-16th century copper alloy annular brooch which may relate to the underlying pre-barn structures.
Pottery
307 fragments of late 18th-century table and kitchen ware were recovered which can be matched with material from many similar Hebridean sites. Also, mostly in the upper levels and mostly in the north barn, were 1228 fragments of handmade Craggan ware. The assemblage includes several fragments that could be medieval, however the mixed nature of the midden matrix detracts to a certain extent from the value of the ceramic assemblage. One fragment of white salt-glazed dinner plate is of outstanding interest. On one surface has been etched the picture of a fully rigged sailing ship. This is the skilful work of someone who may have been used to working bone in the manner of 'Skrimshaw' work.
Sponsor: A Nicholson
Foster, P 2000, 95-6

NG 4199 9726. Second year of excavation on House Island at site HI 15, a blackhouse and associated buildings, undertaken in July 2001. Internal levels were reduced, revealing a complex drainage system, numerous hearths, internal divisions and a possible pottery firing pit containing a large part of a hand-made pottery waster. Wall footings and layered deposits of burnt peat soil of pre-blackhouse date were also examined. The northern attached outbuilding, found last year to be partially buried within a massive limpet midden, was investigated further, revealing stone structures and deposits below both outbuilding and blackhouse. Similar features were found in excavations beside the external W wall of the blackhouse. Excavation was started on the small outbuilding attached to the S side of the blackhouse which was found to possess a winnowing hole in the W wall opposite the E entrance.
To date the excavations have produced over 2000 sherds of hand-made pottery, mostly associated with around 450 sherds of Early Modern glazed factory products, of between the early to mid-18th century and 1865. A small amount of grass-tempered hand-made pottery was retrieved which, along with a soapstone spindle whorl and a fragment of soapstone bowl, indicates Norse occupation of the site. Several medieval rims dating to around the 14th century have been identified, and a single sherd of an Iron Age vessel with applied zig-zag decoration. Final ceramic analysis will hopefully provide a link with the earlly medieval to the Early Modern period through the analysis of the hand-made material.
Of note is the lithic assemblage, which amounts to over 70 struck flints and cores, almost all being found in the 18th-century deposits. Several worn strike-a-lights and a musket gun flint are present. There is also evidence for the working of the local basalt possibly to produce gardening implements, ie hoe blades. At least one of the several fragments of rotary hand millstone that have been found was manufactured locally from an outcrop of tertiary syenite.
P Foster 2001, 101-2

NG 4199 9726 Originally started in 2000 (DES 2000, 95-6) the excavation of this blackhouse complex in 2003 reached deposits and structural features up to 0.4m below the 18th/19th-century walls, and bedrock was revealed in several places. The site is composed of elements of at least the Middle and Late Iron Age, possibly Pictish later Norse and medieval, more certainly the 15th to 16th century, and the standing buildings with their deposits of the Early Modern period. Whether all or some of these periods form a continuous thread of time is at present impossible to ascertain. Preliminary fabric analysis shows little variation in pottery across time, and most of the forms individually show few distinctive characteristics so that, at present, the recognition of cultural periods rests on just a few of the more distinctive forms. ….
Foster 2004, 136-7
Full details therein

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2000, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41184.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2001, Discovery and Escavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41185.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 2004, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41193.

Rachel Barrowman, 2005, Lewis Coastal Chapel-sites Survey 2004/5 (Unpublished document). SWE41095.