Archaeology Today: Scotland's remote St Kilda archipelago Inhabited 2000 Years Ago

Recently BBC News did a story about an archipelago ( stretch of water containing many islands) northwest of Scotland (and part of the UK), where one of the island, called St. Kilda, had inhabitants, was abandoned in the early 20th century. But the habitation of the island extended all the way back to 4 B.C.!!   Before we get into the story, you need to know:  

WHERE IS ST. KILDA? St Kilda is an isolated archipelago situated 40 miles west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom/

  Here's the story>>>

Evidence St Kilda was inhabited 2,000 years ago Scotland's remote 

St Kilda archipelago was inhabited as long as 2,000 years ago, according to archaeologists. 

BBC NEWS 2-9-21 

Pieces of Iron Age pottery were uncovered on the main island of Hirta in the largest archaeological dig to be carried out on the island chain.

A fragment of possible Bronze Age pottery was also found, suggesting the islands were occupied even earlier.

St Kilda, more than 40 miles (64km) from the Western Isles, was abandoned by its last islanders in 1930.

 

                            (Photo: Overview of Village Bay, St Kilda, Credit: Wikipedia) 

Today Hirta is only occupied for a few months of the year by National Trust for Scotland staff and volunteers as well as some scientists.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) contractors also spend periods of time on St Kilda operating a rocket testing radar.

The last families who lived on St Kilda St Kilda is a Unesco-designated World Heritage Site and is managed and protected by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

Glasgow-based Guard Archaeology carried out the archaeological excavations between 2017 and 2019.

The work was done ahead of a refurbishment of the MoD's base in Village Bay on Hirta.

(Image: 1580 Carte of Scotlande showing Hyrth (i.e. Hirta) at left and Skaldar (Haskeir) to the north-east. Credit: Wikipedia)

Analysis of the finds made by the archaeologists have now been made public.

Radiocarbon dating of carbonised [carbonized] food remains stuck to sherds [shards in American English] of pottery indicated "intensive inhabitation" of Village Bay between the early part of the 4th Century BC to almost the end of the 1st Century BC.
The majority of the pottery dated from the Iron Age.

Alan Hunter Blair, who directed the excavations, said: "The recent archaeological work has revealed that the eastern end of Village Bay on St Kilda was occupied fairly intensively during the Iron Age period, although no house structures were found.

"One of the most significant problems facing archaeologists working on St Kilda is that earlier buildings were dismantled and cleared away in order to build new ones using the old stone as a building resource.

(Photo: Credit: Andy Explores the World) 

"Stone was also cleared, including that in burial mounds to increase the available cultivation area, leaving little trace of what may have been there before."

Susan Bain, NTS manager for the Western Isles, said the archaeology provided "tantalising glimpses" of life on St Kilda 2,000 years ago.

She said: "These few clues tell us that people were well established on St Kilda as part of the wider settlement of the Western Isles."

In the news: Prehistoric sites found along Ireland's new N4 route

Several years ago, prehistoric settlement sites dating back almost 6,000 years were found in a part of Ireland, located on it's far northern and western coast. (not in "Northern Ireland"). Since we find archaeology fascinating, and we've not heard about it, perhaps you haven't either... so we're re-presenting the story from a local Ireland newspaper here.

Prehistoric sites found along Ireland's new N4 route

August 18 2017 11:00 PM
The Sligo Champion newspaper, Ireland

"Pretty impressive" prehistoric sites have been found along the route being excavated for the new N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin road.

Bronze Age fulacht fiadh cooking pits, meeting/living sites and burial sites containing bones and beads are among the exciting discoveries made by archaeologists during recent excavations.

A large Bronze Age site (c. 3,900 BC-AD 400) near Castlebaldwin was one of the more impressive finds, according to Transport Infrastructure Ireland Archaeological Project Manager Orlaith Egan.

Aerial pic: prehistoric palisade enclosure @Carrownagark.CR:Irish Archaeological Consultancy 

"It's a really good site that we found, a complex site of both Bronze and Iron Age with a double Palisade (wooden fencing) enclosure," she told The Sligo Champion.

"We found burnt bones and beads, which would have been token offerings. It has a structure on the side, as well as smithing and habitat structures. It's quite impressive," she added.

A second smaller site of approx. 30m was found on a hill top at Carrownagark, also near Castlebaldwin.

"It's another really good site," said Orlaith, adding that it's believed the enclosure was used for some sort of habitation or ritual.

Found in the northwestern part of Ireland

A third habitation site found near Castlebaldwin contained hearths, cremated pits and pottery.

All artefacts and soil samples were carefully excavated and sent off for analysis.

"The real story will be when we do our post-excavation analysis and figure out what they tell us about prehistoric Sligo," said Orlaith.

The findings will then be published in a book in about two years time as part of TII's remit to inform the public about all archaeological finds.

"There's a real rich archaeological element to the Sligo landscape, it continues from the times of the Megalithic tombs," said Orlaith.

The findings will be presented in full by archaeologist Brian O'Hara at IT Sligo on Monday 21st August at 7pm.

In the News: Archeologists Unearth ‘Sorcerer’s Treasure Trove’ In Pompeii Dig

We love archaeology and have been to Pompeii, Italy, where in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius buried the ancient city in ash, killing all and preserving the city. Archaeologists rediscovered the city under all that ash in the 19th century and it is an amazing place to explore. 
  In August, an article came out about new discoveries in Pompeii and it revealed that the Volcano didn't erupt in August, but October of that year.
Here's that article from BBC news service: 

In the News: Archeologists Unearth ‘Sorcerer’s Treasure Trove’ In Pompeii Dig 

BBC NEWS

12 August 2019

 

Archaeologists working in the buried Roman city of Pompeii say they have uncovered a "sorcerer's treasure trove" of artefacts, including good-luck charms, mirrors and glass beads. 

 

Most of the items would have belonged to women, said Massimo Osanna, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Most of the artefacts would have belonged to women - possibly slaves or servants  

A room with the bodies of 10 victims, including women and children, was excavated in the same house.

Pompeii was engulfed by a volcanic eruption from Mt Vesuvius in AD 79. 

The fatal eruption froze the city and its residents in time, making it a rich source for archaeologists.

The trove was found in what remained of a wooden box. The wood itself had decomposed and only the bronze hinges remained, preserved by the volcanic material which hardened over it.

Image copyright EPA

In it were crystals, ceramic, amethysts and amber. Scarabs (beetle-shaped amulets) from the Middle East were identified, along with various gems, including a carnelian with a craftsman figure and a glass bead engraved with the head of Dionysus, the Roman god of wine, fertility and ritual madness.

It was more likely the objects belonged to a servant or a slave, rather than the owner of the house, Mr Osanna told the Italian news agency Ansa. None of the artefacts was made of gold, much favoured by the wealthy of Pompeii.
"They are objects of everyday life in the female world and are extraordinary because they tell micro-stories, biographies of the inhabitants of the city who tried to escape the eruption," Mr Osanna said. 

Archaeologists are now trying to establish kinship ties between the bodies found in the house via DNA analysis. 

"Perhaps the precious box belonged to one of these victims," Mr Osanna speculated. The items in the box may have been worn during rituals as charms against bad luck, rather than as ornamentation, he said. 

The chest was uncovered in the House of the Garden in Region V of the archaeological park - the same area where an inscription was discovered last year, indicating that the eruption may have taken place in October 79, two months later than previously thought. 

The house itself would have belonged to a man of high status, confirmed by the quality of the amber and glass beads found in the trove, archaeologists say. 

Most people in Pompeii were not killed by slow-moving molten lava, but by a vast cloud of hot gas and fragments, called a pyroclastic flow. The cloud surged over the city, killing its residents wherever they were, and burying them in ash, preserving their final moments.

In the News: New Dinosaur Species May Have Flown Like a Bat

Ambopteryx longibrachium - Like a Bat-o-saur

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've (Rob) loved dinosaurs since I was a kid. I used to have plastic dinosaurs and I knew every name, and the different periods in which they lived. I still know quite a few, and I still get excited whenever there's a discovery of a new species. That just happened in May 2019. Here's the story from Discover Magazine.


New Dinosaur Species May Have Flown Like a Bat
By Nathaniel Scharping | May 8, 2019 2:15 pm


A 3-D reconstruction of Ambopteryx longibrachium. The dinosaur was likely able to fly thanks to wings similar to bats today. (Credit: Min Wang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Powered flight among large living things has been around for hundreds of millions of years. Dinosaurs, and their relatives the pterosaurs, figured out how to take to the skies long before their avian descendants today did. Now, a new species of dinosaur is shedding some light on the evolutionary path that lofted reptiles skyward.

The fossil, discovered in Liaoning Province in China and named Ambopteryx longibrachium, is actually notable for the fact that it seems to be an altogether different experiment in flight than the one that led to birds today. Instead of the feathery wings that give birds lift, this dinosaur, dated to 163 million years ago, had a wing structure that looked much more like a bat’s.
Bat-osaur


(IMAGE RIGHT:  The fossil of Ambopteryx longibrachium discovered in China. (Credit: Min Wang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences))

Like birds, bats rely on elongated forearm and finger bones to support their wings. Bats, however, use a thin, fleshy membrane called a patagium to provide lift, in place of feathers. This adaptation has served bats well for millions of years, but it appears that their unique take on flight wasn’t necessarily new.

A. longibrachium, as well another related dinosaur, Yi qi, have arm bones that look quite similar to those of a bats, and their fossils show evidence for a patagium-like membrane. Additionally, both species had a special wrist bone, called a styliform element, that pointed backwards from the wrist and helped to support the wing membrane.

Both species are part of the scansoriopterygids, a family of small, feathered theropod dinosaurs that likely lived in the trees. The styliform element and patagium were unique adaptations among theropods, they say, shared only with Y. qi, and probably allowed the dinosaurs to glide from trees like flying squirrels.

The find was published in Nature.


Dinos in the Sky

Theropod dinosaurs, the large group that includes the scansoriopterygids as well as more notable species like Tyrannosaurus rex, also include the lineage that would one day become birds. Those avian dinosaurs evolved the ability to fly entirely separately, however. With this latest find, it’s likely that theropod dinosaurs found the path to flight on two separate occasions.

Another group of ancient fliers, the pterosaurs, had a similar wing structure, but that group of reptiles diverged long before A. longibrachium appeared, and aren’t even considered dinosaurs. This means that these kinds of bat-like wings evolved in A. longibrachium entirely on their own, an altogether separate experiment in flight.

The fossil also gives some indication of what A. longibrachium ate. Gastroliths, stones that helped grind food into digestible bits, were found along with the fossil, as well as what appear to be bones in the dinosaur’s stomach. The theropods were likely omnivores, the researchers say.

Archaeological News: Reconstructing the Face of a 4,250-year-old Woman from a Scotland grave

We think that archaeology is fascinating and recently, researchers found the grave of a woman  in Scotland who lived 4,250 years ago,  and they re-constructed her face. Here's the amazing story from BBC News:

Giving life to a woman found in a 4,250-year-old grave in Caithness

By Steven McKenzie BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-46289045 

• 3 December 2018 
  
  Image copyright Hew Morrison Image caption A facial reconstruction of an Early Bronze Age woman known to archaeologists as Ava

Researchers have gained new insights into the life of a woman who died more than 4,250 years ago.

Known as "Ava", her bones were found in a grave cut into solid bedrock at Achavanich in Caithness in 1987.
New ancient DNA research has shown that she was descended from European migrants who arrived in Britain a few generations before she was born.
The analysis also suggested that she likely had brown eyes and black hair, and that she was lactose intolerant.
The research, published in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and led by archaeologist Maya Hoole, has shed new light on previous ideas on Ava's appearance. She was found to be from an earlier date than previously thought.The new analysis of her genomic data has resulted in the making of a new facial reconstruction of Ava by a forensic artist, Hew Morrison.


The original reconstruction interpreted Ava with red hair and blue eyes.
Ms Hoole said the new ancient DNA evidence, gathered by experts at the Natural History Museum in London and Harvard Medical School, had revealed more accurately what Ava would have looked like.

She said: "Archaeologists rarely recover evidence that indicates hair, eye or skin colour but these new revolutionary techniques allow us to see prehistoric people like we never have before.
"The revelation that her ancestors were recent northern European migrants is exciting, especially as we know that she has no, or very few, genetic connections with the local Neolithic population who resided in Caithness before her."

Image copyright Maya Hoole

Image caption The location of where Ava was found buried 

Ava, who was aged between 18 and 25 when she died, lived in an Early Bronze Age community in an area forested with hazel, pine, alder and birch trees.

The community farmed cattle, ate a meat rich diet, was likely using local flora for medicinal practices and were highly skilled at crafting tools and objects.

Ms Hoole said: "Ava was a healthy young woman who was likely involved in physical labour.
"We don't know what caused her death, but the way she was buried suggests that extra effort was put into the creation of her grave. She was either well respected, greatly cared about or both."

The archaeologist added: "I never dreamed we would be able to do and learn so much from Ava."
Mr Morrison, a graduate of the University of Dundee, said great care was taken in creating the facial reconstruction.

He said: "As the skull was a very old and delicate artefact, the approach used to reconstruct Ava's face was the two-dimensional method.
"This is a less intrusive approach to the traditional three-dimensional method of when a plaster cast is made of a skull and the face is built up manually by hand."

The process the artist followed included photographing and taking measurements of Ava's skull and teeth, using information from a database of modern European tissue depths that correlated with Ava's age, sex and ancestry and drawing the shape of the woman's head and facial features.

Mr Morrison said: "When I received the results of the DNA testing from Maya, which showed that Ava had straight dark hair, brown eyes and a less-fair complexion, I was presented with the opportunity to revise the first facial reconstruction.

"Whilst the overall shape of Ava's face and facial features remained as they were previously, darkening her eyes, her skin tone and giving her totally new hair made her look very different to what I initially imagined when I received the DNA results."

He added: "I did not feel that she looked typical of what a person from Bronze Age Britain would have looked like, but perhaps that of a person from a more southern part of Europe."

Ava's bones, including a skull and teeth, were discovered during a quarrying operation near what is now the A9 trunk road, between Latheron and Thurso. She was buried in an unmarked rock-cut grave rather than underneath a cairn or in a grave dug into soil, which are the most commonly discovered burial sites from the Copper Age and Early Bronze Age.

A piece of pottery, known as a Beaker, was among a small number of items Ava was buried with.
Archaeologists studied the finds at the time and established that she was part of a European group known as the Beaker people, who spread across the European continent and into Britain in a massive migration event.

In the News: 1922: The discovery of Tutankhamun, in color

Recently the photos from the discovery of King Tutankhamun on Nov. 4, 1922 were colorized. Tutankhamun, the boy king ruled Egypt from about 1332 to 1323 BC.
   We've always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian life, architecture, art and gods and goddesses.
 Here's a couple and a link to the article with the rest.

The discovery of  Tutankhamun, in color:  Unboxing King Tut, the boy pharoah

by Alex Q. Arbuckle

LINK TO STORY AND ALL IMAGES: http://mashable.com/2015/11/04/king-tut-discovery/?utm_cid=lf-toc#uLNjziNY8kqd