Section cleaning, recording and sampling

Sna Broch is a Scheduled Monument on the Shetland island of Fetlar. Historic and ongoing coastal erosion has destroyed much of the monument, including the broch tower, but has also revealed fabulous sections across the surrounding ramparts and ditches exposing buried prehistoric land surfaces and waterlogged ditch fills.

Aerial view of two earthwork banks and two ditches on the coast edge with a stony beach in front of them.

All that remains of Sna Broch is the encircling double banks and ditches

In September 2019, we worked with Archaeology Shetland and the local community to clean and record the sections and sample some of the deposits.

Two images side by side. Photo on the left shows a section across an earthwork bank. Photo on the right shows a scale drawing of the same section taped onto a drawing board with pencil and plumb bob lying in the corner

The dark layer across the middle of the bank is a buried soil that pre-dates the construction of the bank

These buried sediments are a rich archive of information about prehistoric Fetlar. We hope the samples we collected will help us date when the broch was constructed, tell us about the prehistoric landscape and give us some information about the lives of the broch dwellers.

Close up of hands holding a wedge-shaped wooden object covered in mud

This wedge-shaped piece of wood was found at the bottom of the ditch

Post-excavation is now underway and we will keep you updated with results.

 

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