Monument record 1479 - STORNOWAY, LEWIS

NB43SW 29 unlocated

Sub-rectangular carved trough with a handle at each end. Held in Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum (ARCH/NN/5) and radiocarbon-dated to 420 +/- 90 bc (OxA-3012).
C Earwood 1993.

This carved trough was found in 1932 during peat-cutting in the Stornoway area; it lay on the old ground surface below about 3m depth of peat and the precise findspot cannot be located. It is held in Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum under accession number GAGM ARCH/NN/5, and has been radiocarbon-dated to 420 +/- 80 bc (OxA-3012), which determination may be calibrated to about 406 cal BC. No contents are recorded and the timber has apparently not been identified.
The trough is similar in form to that from Loch Eport (NF86SE 10), being of sub-rectangular form with a flat bottom, slightly thickened outwards-sloping ends, slightly rounded corners and a knob-like handle at each end. It measures 0.525m in length over all by up to 0.305m transversely. No toolmarks can be identified but the trough was of fairly crude construction.
R E M Hedges, R A Housley, C R Bronk and G J van Klinken 1992; C Earwood 1993; R J C Mowat 1996.

R E M, R A, C R and G J Hedges, 1992, Archaeometry, 144-5 (Bibliographic reference). SWE36547.

C. Earwood, 1993a, Domestic Wooden Artefacts in Britain and Ireland from Neolithic to Viking Times, 50-1, 288 (Bibliographic reference). SWE28921.

C Earwood, 1993b, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 357, 358, 361 illus 2 (Bibliographic reference). SWE30919.

R J C Mowat, 1996, The Logboats of Scotland, with notes on related artefact types, 105-6, 113, no. A67 tab. 1 (Bibliographic reference). SWE36202.