Monument record 14492 - Cladh Hallan, Daliburgh, South Uist

Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age settlement excavated over a number of seasons by Sheffield University, under the direction of Prof. Mike Parker Pearson.

Site 54: NF 7307 2197
10m N-S x 5m E-W, 3m deep
Excavated 1989, 1994, 1995
See excavation reports (Parker Pearson & Roper 1994; Mulville & Parker Pearson 1995)
Double roundhouse with small connecting doorway dug into LBA midden dated to 2960+/-75 (OxA-3352)
Parker Pearson & Sharples 55

site 56: NF 7311 2194
20m E-W x 8m N-S, depth 0.2m
A thin layer, which has been truncated by the west side of the sand quarry. It sites c. 1m above the midden layer of 55 (smr 14497). Also suffering from wind erosion where the turf has gone over an area of 20m to the west of the quarry.
Parker Pearson & Sharples, 56

NF 7305 2200 Following excavation of an Early Iron Age double roundhouse (House 112) in 1994-5 (DES 1996, 108-9), another double roundhouse (House 640) was excavated in 1998, along with a 7m diameter roundhouse (House 401). House 401 contained a deep sequence of deposits. Another roundhouse, House 726, lay directly beneath House 401. The centre of House 726 was set slightly to the N of its successor. The detailed sampling of three consecutive floor layers within House 401 linked the sequence of floors to a complex series of wall builds. Finds continued to be copious and unusual, including a copper-alloy disk, a fragment of shale bracelet, a stone loomweight, 14 scapula shovels, 18 antler picks, smashed pots and a disarticulated sheep burial, as well as many bone points, struck flints and pieces of worked pumice. A probable ram skull was found beneath the floor of the entrance.
The positioning of House 401 almost directly on top of House 726, and its subsequent continuous refurbishment, hints at a significant longevity of continuity in the occupation of this particular spot. Within this sequence ceramic change from flat-topped to rounded rims suggests occupation straddling the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition, perhaps over many generations. This practice of living on top of ancestral house foundations and floors may well be part of a significant change within the British Isles away from the Middle Bronze Age practice of relocating new houses at a distance from the old ones. The deep build-up of floors, together with the continuous renewal of walls, indicates that deposition within the house was a long-term continuous process and not an episode towards the end of the house's occupation as a dwelling.
The second significant discovery in 1998 was a multi-cellular house, House 640, to the NE of House 401. This was entirely excavated and consisted of an E entrance opening into a sub-circular E room which led into a sub-rectangular W room in the W wall of which were a large niche and a small niche. There was a single small hearth in the E room, the floor on the S side being littered with cooking stones and a broken pot. Although most of the stones in the walls had been extensively robbed, those of the large niche remained untouched. The niche was kept open after the rest of the house had filled with windblown sand, and was used for the setting of a small stone structure before being filled with large burnt cobbles. House 640 provides a useful comparison for the partial but previously unique double roundhouse about 100m to the W (House 112). It also highlights a dichotomy between these two multi-cellular housese and the roundhouse, House 401, in terms of their small size, absence of deep occupation layers and peripheral locations, which seems not to be chronological. The most likely current interpretation is that both multi-cellular and roundhouse architecture were in contemporary usage and were used in different ways, or at different times or by different people.
The third discovery was a large depression immediately NE of House 401, filled with dumped material which may derive from the interior of House 401. The results of resistivity survey suggest that this circular depression may be the void left by the collapse of a house even earlier than House 401.
A further major discovery was the identification of earlier Bronze Age settlement underneath and in the immediate vicinity of the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age settlement area. Earlier Bronze Age pottery was found in occupation layers beneath windblown sand below the Late Bronze Age midden and Early Iron Age double roundhouse in Area C. Other probable Early Bronze Age finds were made elsewhere.
Sponsor: HS
Marshall, Mulville, Parker Pearson and Gidlow 1998, 103

DES 1999: NF 7305 2200 Excavations by teams from Sheffield, Southampton and Bournemouth Universities continued in an area of c 460m2 (Area A) in the northern part of a large and deeply stratified settlement mound 90m N-S by 80m E-W. Previous excavations had uncovered a double roundhouse (House 640) and a roundhouse (House 401) with a deep sequence of floors and wall alterations (DES 1998, 103). In 1999 House 401 was found to be one of three roundhouses in a N-S line, each of them sharing a 'party wall' in the form of a brown sand deposit which ringed each of the revetted stone house walls and separating the house interiors by 2-3m. This line of houses probably continues under the deep dune which covers most of the site. Ground-penetrating radar survey revealed the presence of anomalies in the central part of the dune but these have not yet been interpreted. The 244 special finds in 1999 include a copper-alloy ring, two bone pins, a bone needle, 30 bone points, a dog tooth pendant, a carved pig's tusk, a wild boar tusk, 18 antlers (mostly picks), 14 scapula shovels, four spindle whorls a whalebone adze and other whalebone artefacts, polishing, grinding and choppig stones, flaked stone and worked pumice.
The middle roundhouse (House 401 and ealier phases 726 and 1310)
This building is remarkable for its extraordinary longevity of occupation and for the variety of unusual deposits within and below its floors. Although the deepest two of the eight floors remain to be excavated, this house has produced a stratified sequence of pottery types which probably spans most of the first millennium BC. In the top layers were vessels with rounded, thickened rims comparable to those found in 1994 in the double roundhouse in Area C about 100m to the NW (House 112, associated with a radiocarbon date of 2310+/-65 bp (AA-17477), c 750-200BC) and in the earliest levels at Dun Vulan. These overlapped with and were preceded by vessels with flat-topped rims. Earlier in the sequence were vesels with flat-topped but inwardly angled rims. Towards the lower deposits, rims became thickened, concave-topped and almost T-shaped, similar to those from the midden below House 112 (associated with a radiocarbon date of 2960+/-75 bp (OxA-3352), c 1400-995 BC). Because of radiocarbon calibration problems in the 1st millennium BC, the hearths of Houses 401 and 1370 have been sampled for archaeomagnetic dating. Thermoluminescence samples from the site are also being processed. There is another chronological change evident in the stone tools, with flakes of quartz and flint becoming scarce during the house's period of occupation.
There were several categories of unusual deposits within House 401/726/1310:
Dog burials, Antler deposits, Sheep burials, Cattle scapula shovels, Smashed pots, Saddle quernstones (see DES 1999 pp 91-3 for full details).
During the house's eight phases of occupation its architecture changed radically although the use of space within the roundhouse seems to have remained relatively constant. The entrance consistently faced due E and one of the large doorwary post-holes was recut and reused throughout much of the buidling's use. The S side, and epsecially the SE part, was consistently full of red peat ash and pottery, suggesting its use as a kitchen and cooking area. The W end has consistently produced special deposits of pottery and antlers. The N side had raised areas, turfed patches and shallow depressions suggestive of sleeping accommodation. The distribution of charred plant remains suggests that winnowing and parching took place in the NW corner. In contrast, the buidling's shape underwent several changes. It began as a'heart-shaped' structure with inset doorway and entrance passage. The house was intially linked to the small circular room immediately to its E and beyond the doorway. The purpose of this smaller rounhouse is unknown because its six floor layers were cut through by four later storage pits, but it may have been a storeroom. It had not only an interior stone wall but also an exterior wall forming a small bastion which raised the house above the low ground to the E. Connected to this exterior wall were stone revetments along the external E wall of the main house. By the time floor 595 was installed, the main house was fully circular and the smaller roundhouse seems to have gone out of use.
Hose 801 - the southern house
This house had a relatively short occupation span compared to House 401. It appears to have been constructed at the same time but was abandoned after its floor had been replaced only once. Although only its northern half lay within the excavation area, it can be interpreted as a'heart-shaped' building with an E-facing doorway and a central hearth. As yet, there is no sign of a small circular room to its E. After abandonment its walls were heavily robbed and it filled with windblown sand. Just E of the house, this sand had filled a set of at least six cattle hoof prints made in antiquity. In the layers above this sand were traces of E-W ploughmarks (also prehistoric), with some N-S. There was also a curving gully which appears to have partially surrounded House 401 on its S side after House 801 went out of use.
House 1370 - the northern house
A 1m wide trench was excavated N-S through this structure and the layers above it. The N side of House 1370 lay close to the edge of the settlement mound, the layers of which dipped steeply downwards to the N beyond this house's sand wall. The shape of the house cannot be determined yet but its internal diameter was probably about 6m, similar to the other two. It appears to have had only the one floor layer before being abandoned. Above the thin abandonment layer of windblown sand was a series of thin soil layers which included a floor surface and hearth but with no trace of associated walls. There was evidence for metalworking in this area after the abandonment of House 1370, in the form of small molten lumps of copper alloy and a broken tuyere made of fine clay. Small pieces of metalworking slag were found scattered in various locations across the site
The end of occupation
The latest layers across the site were patches of red hearth ash. These may originally have formed a single layer but modern quarrying and erosion have destroyed any possible stratigraphic associations between them. In the northern part of the site, these red ash patches were laid on top of a pattern of E-W ploughmarks which cut into the layers above House 1370. The unusual double roundhouse, House 640 (found in 1997 in the NE part of the site) cut through one of these red ash spreads. It is thus most probably the latest feature on the site and clearly separate form the N-S line of roundhouses. Subsequently almost the entire settlement mound was sealed beneath a 2-4m deep deposit of windblown sand.
Sponsor: HS
Marshall, P, Mulville, J, Parker Pearson, M, Smith H and Ingrim, C 1999, 91-93

DES 2000: NF 7305 2203 Work continued on the N-S line of three sunken-floored roundhouses and on the yard area in front of them. The excavation trench was extended a few metres to the S in order to excavate the whole of the southern roundhouse interior. Above it lay a later house, the N half of which had been entirely destroyed by sand quarrying. The remains of this house (1500) consisted of a central hearth, a floor surface, two stretches of walling (one which may have been secondary), many post-holes and a pit containing a pot and raw potting clay. There was an unusually high number of bone points from these post-holes. A pot had been buried beneath the W part of the wall, presumably as a foundation deposit before construction.The S roundhouse (801) turned out to be sub-rectangular and in its well-preserved floor were a central hearth, a machair turf spread in the NW, a low earthen 'bench' and stone niche in the S side, and a line of stones which guided movement sunwise into the house.
The middle roundhouse (401) has archaeomagnetic dates of c 800-650 and c 900-750 BC for its fourth and fifth floors respectively (out of eight). This year we completed excavation of its third and second floors and began excavation of the first phase. As in previous years we found evidence of hearth ash, pottery and bones in the SE, remnant machair turfs piled up in the NW and pottery across the S half but almost entirely absent from the N half. There was also a sunken 'cellar' area in the SW corner in the first phase. Under the successive builds of the wall on its SW and W sides we found further deposits of pottery prior to construction of walling. From the fill layer on top of the first floor we found a bronze tanged chisel and an Early Bronze Age flint barbed-and-tanged arrowhead. From the NNE corner came a broken bronze tanged blade which had been left on the uppermost of the thin floor lenses immediately before the fill layer was deposited on top. Excavation of the entrance passage and the circular 'porch' area was also completed.
The N house (1370) was excavated to the top of its floor layer. Large sherds from several pots had been tipped into a wide pit on its S side. It appears to have had a circular 'porch' and its entrance was 'blocked' after desertion by a pit filled with rubble. Most it its inner wall stones were robbed whereas many of those on the exterior of the earth wall core remained in situ. This house was sub-circular, in contrast to the oval first phase of 401 and the sub-rectangular shape of 801, despite the fact that all three were built together with shared earth wall cores.
Sponsor: HS
Parker Pearson, M, Marshall, P, Mulville, J and Smith, H 2000, 97-98

NF 731 218 In August and early September 2001 excavations were completed on the terraced row of three E-facing roundhouses at Cladh Hallan. We have now recovered the remains of six separate houses with 16 preserved floor surfaces within this deeply stratified Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age settlement. Fourteen of these floors survived in their entirety and were intensively sampled for flotation and geophysics.
In 2001 we excavated the lowest floor of the middle roundhouse, the particlaly surviving lowest floor of the S roundhouse, and three consecutive floors within the N roundhouse. Outdoor areas in front of the S and N houses and behind (W of) the central house were also excavated. A trial trench at the southern end of the settlement revealed a sequence of three consecutive house floors (from the earlier phases of the site's occupation) and confirmed that the sand quarry within which we have ben excavating covers merely the northern half of a large an dcomplex long-lived settlement.
The most dramatic finds were four human skeletons buried as foundation deposits beneath the primary floor of each of the three roundhouses. As predicted by the sunwise model (in which sunwise passage around the house represents the cycle of birth to death), there was a burial in each NE quarter: a partially articulated 3-year-old child in the S house, a 12-year-old in the central house, and an adult male (35-39) in the N house….
Other foundational deposits associated with the construction of the terrace consisted of pits within or outside the door of each house...
As we had hoped from previous discoveries of residual finds, a floor layer within the entrance area of the middle house contained a scattered deposit of clay mould fragments for making bronze swords, spears, and ornaments together with crucible fragments…
Sponsor: HS
For full details see DES 2001: M Parker Pearson, P Marshall, J Mulville and H Smith 2001, 102-4

NF731218 Excavations at Cladh Hallan in August and September 2002 continued in the same location as in previous years. The objective was to complete excavations below the lowest floors of the three Late Bronze Age roundhouses (NF 72 SW 17). The numerous small pits, post-holes and stake-holes below the floors of the middle and N houses were excavated, together with a row of large pits which were dug underneath - and prior to - the front walls and entrances of the houses. Sections of ground surface beneath the wall cores were also investigated. The sub-floor layers beneath the S house consisted, unexpectedly, of a complex stratified and intercut sequence of four structures, of which the lowest was a Northton-style U-shaped house. This house was built directly on top of a small cremation cemetery with early Late Bronze Age pottery. Underneath, a thick layer of windblown sand covered a Beaker-period ploughsoil which spanned the entire length of the site….
Parker Pearson, Mulville and Smith 2002, 121-2
NB Abridged here - full details in DES 2002.

Parker Pearson, M and Sharples, N, Dun Vulan Environs Survey, South Uist (Unpublished document). SWE41170.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 1998, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41173.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 1999, Discovery and Excavation iin Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41183.

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, 2002, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41091.