<< News >> Time Team finds Bronze Age relics on Barra dunes
Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 04 June 2007 Page Views: 13978
Neolithic and Bronze AgeCountry: Scotland County: Barra and Vatersay Type: Ancient Village or SettlementInternal Links:
The tranquil Hebridean island of Barra became the scene of a mass excavation last month as Tony Robinson and his fellow Time Team diggers uncovered a Bronze Age cemetery arguably as impressive as Orkney's Skara Brae.
More than 50 archaeologists and crew from the popular Channel 4 show were joined by local experts to dig up the Allasdale sand dunes, revealing burial kists with skeletons dating back almost 4000 years.
During their three-day dig, the team also discovered whale, seal and sheep bones, a stone wheel house - so named as its internal walls resemble the spokes of a wheel - and two Iron Age round houses, with one considered the best preserved in the show's 11-year history of excavating relics.
As with the ancient Orkney houses of Skara Brae, heavy storms were behind the discovery of the archaeological finds in Barra, with some of the sand dunes blown away in 2005 to expose human remains and prehistoric houses.
One email to Channel 4 later and the small island, with a population of around 1000, was soon under invasion. Western Isles archaeologist Carol Knott, who provided her expert knowledge of the area during the team's brief visit, overheard the producer say it was one of their most successful archaeological projects ever.
Knott said: "It was brilliant to get such a concentrated team of experts in one place, and what they were able to do in just three days would have taken us weeks. I have a muscle in my right arm I never knew I had, I think I carried more buckets in those three days than I have in the whole of the rest of my life."
Presenter Tony Robinson had first thought the curious circles of stones found on the beach looked as if they were left by teenagers having a bonfire, only to discover they were in fact ancient burial kists, small stone boxes used as coffins in the Bronze Age.
The team found the perfectly preserved skeleton of a middle-aged woman, two kists with infant remains and the cremated remains of a third. Post-excavation tests by Wessex Archaeology in the next few months are expected to reveal all kinds of details about life and death on Barra as far back as bc 2000.
Time Team assistant producer Lucia Ashmore said she would be very surprised if the show doesn't put Barra on the tourist map. She said: "People across the island were fantastic, lending their support and expertise. It was clearly a remarkable excavation.
"Whether it is unique I don't know, but it was excellent as far as we were concerned. It would be wonderful to say it is the new Skara Brae, but that is quite a big claim to make."
Ashmore described the crew as having a "residential monopoly", having packed into the various hotels, B&Bs and self-catering homes. Sineag Boyd, from the Castlebay Tourist Information Centre, said: "During May and June Barra is very busy anyway with people looking at flowers and birdwatching, but it did kind of fill up and it was quite difficult to get accommodation on these days."
"It wasn't a surprise that they found something, but the size of what they found certainly was. What's going to happen from now I really don't know. Barra sells itself as a whole rather than just an archaeology site, but their findings will definitely benefit the area."
Professor Keith Branigan, who has been charting Barra's archaeology since 1988 as part of a Sheffield University research project, said: "The archaeological record on Barra is incredibly rich, particularly along the coastline. We recorded more than 2000 archaeological sites covering all periods from pre-history right the way through to the 19th century.
"The whole of the Western Isles suffers from the fact that its natural geology doesn't lend itself to imposing architecture like Skara Brae. On Barra you have a horrible dark coloured stone called gneiss' which breaks into lumps and isn't particularly attractive. But people have spent just as much time on the buildings and in many ways they rival Skara Brae and the like."
sundayherald.
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