Time Team S05-E03 Orkney,.Scotland

this is Sande on the Orkney Islands and I'm standing on the nests of Brock Ness meaning headland and Brock being the ancient Norse word for a fort this was the perfect stopping off point for the Vikings coming from Norway over there on their way to raid the rich Abbey's of northern England 300 miles in that direction there's loads of Viking remains on this island and some local school kids have written in to us because they think that these mounds might be Viking too well we've got just three days to find out show that it's the middle of June and it's absolutely freezing is it always like this up here no it's normally quite nice but in today's bit death is he gonna stow like this or is it gonna get better oh it gets better than these are the skies of Brooke is that me yeah the man go and stand on that man they show in the middle there and then we got people on all of them you can see it's not very good in this light but you can see this is number one here that shown us standing on now yeah and you can see the low Mound just showing up in the grass like that and then Phil's on to over there and you can see that it's against the skyline it shows up quite nicely as a mound and then trees that sort of doughnut shape well the flat mound over there with the geophysics side you can see that shows up against the sea or in that direction in for is that huge rather spread mound over there with Jenny with the yellow coat on the top and again you can see that against the the landscape at the back some of these four mounds up on the top of this lump and why do we think they're Viking well just over a hundred years ago the the farmer from West Brook Trail Denison found a rusty old sword and an axe and something that was described as a cauldron and people think that possibly he dug them up from the side here and that's what we're hoping you'll find out but Mick presumably just because they were Viking things found it doesn't necessarily mean that the site was originally Viking no no I mean there could be all sorts of things I mean these could be barrows it could be Bronze Age no 2000 BC something like that all cans but then they could have been taken over by the vise absolutely cus decides get reused time and time again so the Vikings would be what eight hundred a thousand ad you know it's all a bit of a conundrum at the moment so I mustn't make the mistake of thinking just because we found something Viking now we're gonna get now is gonna be like we're getting through to Utley and never what we think it's going to be so whatever it is it won't be what we thought right we shouldn't have to wait long before we get the first geophysics information about the mounds but already one thing's clear we're going to have to be careful where we were awesome right aerial photos those are some wonderful Asst that's round one there that's man-to-man threes the sort of doughnut-shaped one would you dip in the middle man for at the top there that that really big one that it looks very messy on the ground but that really does look like some really big stripper or something that's fantastic and all the medieval plowing across there shows up really really clearly but it appears to be largely sterile for want of a better word there's not evidence that suggested settlement so it's fairly quiet little point quiet from the magnetic point of view that's what doesn't look quite it's all this I mean it's just wild and where is meld for in here what will man for is actually in that sort of area just as noisiest it is actually outside the world but this is often the case you'll get mitten deposits the rug but rubbish deposits outside of where people are living these are typical of the responses we get from settlement if I didn't know better I'd have said it as a brach and what's a brach it's a fortified tower from really the Iron Age yes from before all the time of Christ and for quite a long time optimist about round time Christ and these were very elaborate stone built structures and thought to be used for defense but they also attracted the local community so there's a village that very often grows up around the block subsequent to it so that's what this could be round here is all the village remains in fact but you've been talking bras and you've been talking at iron age does that mean that you're all assuming from the beginning that these aren't originally Viking science and we don't know for sure where the Viking artifacts came from from this side and looking at serving because I've just set foot on this like this looking at the survey I did wonder whether that the one that's producing the sterile results as John calls them was a robbed out Viking grave and that's still a possibility I think well if we're going to have enough time to find out it's important to start digging now and the decision made is that we start a trench here on the less complicated boundary while we wait for more geophysics information on the big amount if we do have the remains of an Iron Age brach on Mount 4 then we're talking about a tower which once looked like this and what do we think they would have been used for well I've got galleries and staircases in the walls they may have had floors so we're thinking of something like a fortified tower almost like a castle and what other period is this well it's it's probably better to think of them as Iron Age yeah the few centuries BC going on into the few centuries ad they belong to really the pits the the natives sort of people in Scotland and with a pic still here when the Vikings arrived in the yeah and said they go right through because we don't have the interruption up here of the of the Roman occupation so prehistory carries on if you want to think of it like that but what about this idea that the Vikings came along in the ninth century and reused the mounds to bury their dead the only evidence for this is the Viking finds but can we be sure that they were found on the nests of Brock carrenza I'm getting mixed signals about these Viking finds some people say to me they were Viking finds on the nests and other people saying there may have been Viking fines associated with the network it is a bit confusing when you know the only evidence we have for for the finds is from an antiquarian called Walter Trail Denis and he had a list of everything he'd found around here all been given that came from around here and he lists two Viking finds from this area the most significant I think the definite one is a scale fan buried on top of a mound called skies and that's the stars of Brock out there that skull was found with a Viking sword which is now in Hunterian Museum in Glasgow so we can be confident that was a Viking burial on a mound out on the skies on the nests up there so we've definitely got something Viking there and who was it it was the farmer who left here that's his picture over there then he left and found you by 1850 Tuesdays and 1894 and as well as being a very keen amateur archaeologist it was also a folklorist and gathered a lot of stories from around here and this was his actual house and in fact this is his study I think and it Frost's from sitting you come and have a look he could have actually seen out of his window right across onto the nest that's our sight up there you can see all our diggers on the horizon there but unfortunately he just describes and we don't have a plan or anything saying exactly where any of this came from we know he had a Viking grave on the nests but came from a man but we don't know which man it is and it now seems windier than ever up here on the nests and there's nowhere to hide even my favorite place of shelter is blown over but we are making progress with mound three got our first fine this is a prehistoric pot lid apparently you can see how it's been worked there and there from there around there and so far our dig here seems to be confirming that this mound is indeed a can which means it's a huge pile of stones built in the Bronze Age to cover a burial usually information in addition to the four mounds here we've also decided to investigate what may be another care at the other end of the Ness this is a job that needs doing because it's starting to be washed away by the sea and any information we can get will help us understand how this headland was used in the past carrenza meanwhile has found another excuse to stay indoors it was enough ocean we came here oh really well Houston esse Brock no you'll see the stays of Brock market I will start work here I see and it says site of picks house there the end Roman that must be referring to that mound for the big one mustn't it well there's not many maps you find Peck social it know what I don't think no I mean it some doesn't of course mean that it is a Pictish structure is interesting someone's thought it's that interesting building rather there's no mention of any burial mounds or anything there is there yes this map is 1905 oh yes but she labs map could be much older because it's untraceable cloth ah yes the Karen or tracing cloth this month it could be much older than that sure can you show them what you're showing me just before lunch oh yeah I can see I'm not trying to look at the other lumps and bumps on the headland as a whole not just focusing it on the mound and what's happening at this end where they the large amount for is behind us is a whole series of little paddocks and fields and enclosures going down towards the the water over there and they seem to sit on top of a larger circular feature and it started to look like this something imposed on top of a a Brock is what it looks like to me at the moment but quite enjoyed it what sort of width across is about 30 meters 30 meters mm that's that's a full area yeah but what was really interesting is this particular feature which is coming out here which has got these bowed sides and is very distinctive and it's over plowed I'll show you it's obvious answer quite well I know the earthworks Stuart's talking about is much easier to see on this aerial photo I don't wonder if there is something maybe I'll have a whit go tell my hungry use doing eyes right I'm just wondering whether it already seemed like a great haul the big haul yeah of a north period sad isn't it to would see this big is that it's ever so wide hell yeah how long is it it's a bit about 1718 meters in length by about north nine turn on but it was very wide yeah it's without parallel up here you saw you think that this is probably too big for a Norse house I look forward to being proved wrong well hopefully the latest geophysics results will help us sort out the complicated lumps and bumps of mound for John have you got the results you don't waste much time there got any good and keeping them where to dig committee down to just a few people should mean we reach a quicker decision we've done the 40 meter block right over the mound we're getting a clear high resistance response in the middle I mean that's what we may assume to be the Brock that means stone that's the black areas that's the black areas do you reckon there's a Brock it's about the right size for it I mean it's very what's not getting clear wall lines but that's what you would expect with the amount of rubble you'd have associated with the Brock structure and so where do you think we should dig well there's no way we can cope with that is it I don't think so Brock's a big complicated structure isn't it it is and even just taking the top off all you can find is rubble and it'll be an awful lot of work to try and get them all lines I mean how long would it take to excavator Brock well at the moment we've got a research project that's working in Shetland looking over oxide and we've been working at it for two years we're going back to the third year and we haven't got so we're not going to solve this in three days home so what can we do in our three day that's the point we've got to I mean had job is to look at these mounds and to say what they are what date they are and so on and we may not be able to answer this is a block but if we look at the midden material or the ditch or whatever around it or more lines on the also lines at it we make we may be able to say something about the the data that's right and then one thing one possibility model to put it somewhere in this area you should then take in Stuarts enclosure so we could have a look at that because of limited time the decision is to start a small trench here on the edge of mound four with the aim of finding some dating evidence for the bran depending how it goes we can extend the trench to investigate Stuart's idea of a Norse Hall if we have time that's looking really good and it fell out it's changing all the time that you see that we've got a beautiful curve beautiful sweeping round now these big kerbin stones so we're talking about a can here some sort of burial mound I done it there's any question about that no domestic activity the doesn't show any debris did not so and I mean we've got no fines ourselves we've got a few of these little pot lids against Rome stone features it's a few room on ument of some sort of short scott to be so more work to do cleaning up and recording here but from what we've seen so far this can shows no signs of having been reused for a Viking burial in fact the evidence found today has very much been the story of how this headland was used in prehistoric times and can we now add to the picture and include another can at this end of the Ness so what's the verdict Mick it's a can you can see we've laid the stones and the tapes out so that you can see that roughly the outline apart bits gone over the cliff it's dated it well it looks exactly like a Bronze Age care it's like a lot of Bronze Age care as we've seen before and but this one is like problem yeah which is this oh wow oh yeah that's sir one of these stone rolls or whatever made of soapstone so just airtight discordant it and it's not it's Viking the Vikings didn't use pottery very much and most of their vessels are made from this very soft stone that you can carve with with metal normally when you find these vessels they're chiseled quite roughly chiseled out in the middle yeah this one's actually quite smooth it's got on the edge here it's got a rivet hole where it's been broken mended you can still see the iron staining on the inside from yeah from the rivers valley been off to repair it so it's um so yeah yeah yeah how big is this thing gonna be big quite big like ah yeah yeah literally you're going like that yes wider and shallow well could be quite a bit quite deep record right you can actually see looking yeah you can see there are very deliberate lines crossing this and it's not usually what you get if you're just scaring out the bowl for cleaning it and that looks more like a pattern so what do you think that pattern could be well it could be a gaming board it's just possible right that you know once the final use of the stair type was was to use the inside of it as a board for playing metha tough on the Viking well known Viking game mm-hm so if this is Viking why do we think that the can is Bronze Age well everything about the cairn is Bronze Age this is actually found in the stones right at the top so it why it's what is doing there how it got there we really don't know it could be Bronze Age ken and then with some content trees later it was just dropped that's really Viking now we know what it is what are we gonna do I don't think we're going to do anymore are we because it would take a long time to either pick that two pieces or indeed checks great anymore so we're happy with this one we've got to move on to the others well end of day one we're going back to our hotel for a game of Nephi Tata we've got lots more to find out over the next two days and lots of clues see you after the break it's nine o'clock on day two it's as windy as ever that is warmer than it was yesterday and last night after we'd finished John from geophysics came up with some amazing results from Mount - it might not look much there but if you look at the magnetometry of Mount - you see this big thing shooting up there and according to John that's a fairer spike in other words there's a piece of metal there and who knows that could be where the Viking was buried but the big question is even if there are Viking remains of some kind there have we got enough time to explore it thoroughly normally we've had burning in the bottom of the kelp if you get a strong magnetic response I'm not getting it from here so could be a hole where somebody's plundered already it doesn't look like that either cuz you have got stone lining so we're not sure what's doing this but if I mean if we could if we could encompass something like this feature here maybe the the kiss which if we find that it's not been disturbed and we leave it plus we can encompass the spikes as well if we can get a trench is going to cover all those eventualities I think that's going to but maximize result well I'm keen to get started but clearly this is an important decision for the archaeologists we can't just dig for Viking treasure like Trail Denison would have done our trench has to be positioned to give us the most information without damaging the mound anymore that we have to but now everyone's been consulted digging can begin on mound 2 the geophysics team has got a lot of ground to cover but they're aiming to give us a complete picture of the four mounds and the area in between this is the progress they've made so far while it mount for the news is that we're beginning to find bits of pottery keep ourself black and on one side isn't it yeah prehistoric it's definitely prehistoric it looks as if it could be Iron Age that would go nicely with the broth wouldn't make no Gary be nasty for the band well it's early days yet and we're still very much in the topsoil but Stewart still pushing for this trench to be extended so we can find out if this earthwork Ridge belongs to the Iron Age brach or possibly a Norse Hall of course it's possible that the Vikings never actually lived on the nests but kept it as a special place for burials if that was the case then this huge mound next to the present-day farm is likely to be the size of their settlement because what actually is it no it's a big mound to the farm a big mound of rubbish and building stone buildings and all the rubbish from the from the buyers from the farms over thousands of years and all the the domestic rubbish was also manure and an ashram fires and yeah food remains and all the rest of it falling down buildings so it's really what we'd call a midden then is it yeah which is I think a normal word anyways you know rubbish or no order don't keep yeah it's a lot bigger Annie when you get up here isn't it certainly big enough to put er a farm on on the floor yeah yeah and you can see it's well the height above the surrounding one yeah and all the rubbish still building up on it well that's right that's an on formation it actually that's actually how this thing husband's outside Scandinavia farm mounds are only found here on sand a and neighboring island north Ronald say and just a mile or so across the island a local farmer has found a fragment of what might be a Viking comb in a farm mound which has been eroded away by the sea well it actually came from here long US sailors yeah literally just right in the areas the cities it's just sucking out ligase Leah and I just distorted day after or did it just feel in the hair there it is in the box hmm oh come on not you too that was salutely beautiful it's an absolutely beautiful comb it really as I wish I'd found it yes I guess it's rather rather potty what sort of date do you think that probably we call it a late north comb it's probably from about the 12th or 13th century maybe the 13th century it'll be made out of antler and you can see the remains of the bronze rivets that little plate would have held the two sides together and riveted with it there you see the green where exactly yes when you say it's Norse it's not from this sort of early Viking period the pagan period it's from much later I mean organized and settled here exactly that's so nice it's even got course teeth on one side 90 thumb the other when you get yes that's how you have came to the day since usha all Codrington each that's right very good right it is it's called a ring and dot ornament it's very common yes on well all objects of Viking and late north often especially bone obviously they often have fur and ring and dart Horniman there the sea has effectively cut a section through the farm mound allowing us to see the layers of rubbish deposited over the centuries course erosion is a very serious problem run the whole coast of Orkney and you only need one very bad storm from the wrong direction and you can use lose meters the whole thing and you can lose all the unforced errors in it as well you can go with it exactly this 13th century Norse comb is easy enough to reconstruct on the computer how difficult were bone combs to make to find out ally has suggested we attempt to make a replica of this earlier 9th century comb which is the type often found in pagan Viking graves like the one we're hoping to find on the nests Keith Prosser a Viking enthusiast has agreed to take up the challenge what animals this from this is a red deer antler and and out of this you have to choose the best sections you can possibly get to to actually make make up the bone comb which comes in various composite pieces they look horribly complicated I mean looking all those tiny teeth to me Emily is easy enough to brighten when you're combing in your hair let alone trying to make them how long do you think it's going to take well I think if I can get to the stage where I'm cutting the teeth I'll be really pleased because the easiest part as I'm concerned yeah actually cutting all the pieces from here is the hardest part and probably maybe five six hours if I'm lucky Keith's first challenge is to cut and shape flat pieces of bone in the twisted antler Monica yeah by all means their social rounded size this might be their chocolate well fans so just cross like that yeah that's fine yes it's nice and flat that's quite hard just no it's not it's a very tough material yeah yeah the old stuffs friendship really yeah meanwhile out on the nest on Mount - everyone's doing their bit to help and the focus of interest is the so-called kelp admit your rent is gonna pay the burial that they found I have to look if the shell in the bottom yeah if this is the residue shell because kelp is burning seaweeds under and the shell is left in the bottom usually in quite thick layer well we're not going to know talking about it are we yeah that's great what you're looking for is a layer of ash bird shell I mean it's quite often quite white there's all the it's all the little barnacles dropping off the staff and I mean with lands in the bottom no I don't think we should miss anything of that yeah we haven't we haven't got into it at all yet really have we it may look lovely and sunny but let me assure you it's freezing and the wind is as strong as ever only why did the Vikings sail all that way across inhospitable seas simply in order to land at this windswept place this winds quickly but this is a beautiful face this is magic you have to remember where they'd come from they've come from Norway and although that's staggeringly beautiful as well it's a very difficult place to live people were farming along the edges of fjords on tiny narrow strips of land they were eking out living and the population was increasing and of course you remember the Viking ships they had the technology to travel and I think when they came to Audrey they didn't see a windswept Island at all they saw paradise where they could live and farm and settle and grow crops and raise cows and sheep so they were farmers as much as they were Raiders oh yes absolutely especially here I mean these opening islands that there's no trace from the archaeological record of battles and destruction nor of you know the Vikings had been wiped out the local population that was here it seems as if there was a maybe the local population had been in decline but it seems as if there was a sort of gentle integration between a Pictish period and the Viking period and what do we know about how they buried their dead here they buried them in pits in the ground the pits could be oval they could rectangular they could be boat shaped or they could be actual boats and most of them when they were buried on new territory when a turtle hadn't had older monuments on it were flat graves they weren't covered by mounds just back of a farm although keeps making progress passing the antler bones taking longer than expected and probably means we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the finished result the basic ingredients of the bone comb have been made now we've got most of the plates that should be needed for constructing the comb now the two connecting back pieces which will cement them all together sandwich them together the trench we're pinning our hopes on how far we got well it's coming along very very nicely actually Tony there's the the feature there that we were deliberating whether or not it was a cow pit there's still no evidence of burning and so we're still hopeful that it may well be the site of a burial we've got it excavated down to the the top of the archeology it's planned and we're ready to go on in through the base of it now Phil yesterday we had this as the with the site with the big of Paris like have we found what that is or are we still chasing one no no that they the ferris spike is in the hole at the back have we found what that is John's Fame what it is what if I found what it was but John told me that that was it Guang Salim John I think I'll go home no no no I want to see you grovel Oh John I have to see a Viking sword yeah how would you like to see what caused the response yeah yeah what's this layup Rock with iron in it is it no it's a burnt stone all right don't sit on it the response you got was enormous I know and if you hold this next to the magnetometer it just goes off scale get lured over 200 now and I'll take it away it drops why does it do that it's because it's it's been heavily fired and it becomes very magnetic as it cools down that's why it was enormous yeah and well you can see it goes off the scale it was two or three large stones exactly at that point and the other blips I was getting throughout the mound there's just smaller fragments of burnt stone scattered I this man so we don't think there's anything metal there at all no I'd appear not according to Phil there's no evidence of burning in situ so it seems likely that the stone was burned elsewhere before it was built into the can but now time to get out of this wind and take refuge in one of the two bars on the island and Tom Muir has just the remedy for anyone still feeling the cold it's a traditional or kadian drink known as calm have a bit of hush for a minute please before we will get completely wasted on this cog can we see if we can agree as to where we've got to in discovering what's under all four mounds Steve number three the donut mound are you pretty sure you know what you've got now I think it's okay the walling that we've got continues round and there's a lot of stone inside it some slippage outside it looks very can like probably a Bronze Age date right so it's a Ken what about game number for me though the one that we were saying earlier on is was a Brock I feel rock or whatever yeah well we've got a small hole there which is producing lots a nice pottery which we think is probably Iron Age there's also boosting lots of flint it's probably produced more than the other holes put together I think but we don't think we'll extend it we think we think we're happy with what we've got we're just gonna record it and take it to pieces but the reason we were going to extend it was to try and solve the question of what those bowed wall like looking at structures were the Stuart fell well we may be able to do that without extending it because it is a complicated hole so I have to spend some time on it tomorrow unraveling it what about the one where we had John's Ferris spike that just turned out to be a stone well that's it we're early days on that really we've only taken off the topsoil and cleared off some of the superficial rubble but what we do know is that what we thought might be a kelp it definitely isn't and that's interesting in itself because of course we do have an unexplained feature still left there too what about number one we've done nothing there except were you geophysics obstinate yes but I'm sorry nothing but tomorrow I'll tell you everything yeah so there's plenty to do tomorrow old bags of things yeah I think we need to stay at three weeks actually listen well I think let's see how we feel tomorrow after the conch shell all right so I just say bring in the cold we would tell me oh don't be notes in the trough Oh booth Oh day three and thankfully the cold wind seems to have stopped at last amount for steward will be pleased to see that at last were extending this trench to find out if this ridge of high ground belongs to an Iron Age bra or a later norse hole on mount two Phil's got the job of investigating the so-called kelps pit could it be the Viking burial we're looking for several of the archaeologists are beginning to think so partly because of a piece of bone which was found in this trench late last night it's in bad condition but it's doing it's the texture on the inside yeah strangely indeed it actually looks more human than animal doesn't it mothers yeah basically the weight of it's very light and this texture on the inside is very human these small little perforations that you can see yeah yeah yeah maybe a small chunk of human blood so could we have found our Viking burial Phil can hardly believe it and you're adamant it's not a culprit I'm sure it's not a kelp it well I mean it really does do my heart good to sort of hear you being so absolutely adamant about it I mean it makes us please the know certain he's gonna make a lot of schoolkids happy in it it's certainly a fantastic start to our final day but how're we doing with the Viking comb mr. terry has offered to lend a hand stage right now we've got to finish off the backs by decorating them and then they'll be ready to be drilled and riveted through three-door work on bash at that yeah well we've got the diagram of the scar comb here with some of the decoration on it we're going to try to put these nice polar lines around the back of the comb do these crossbars and the little dot and ring decoration to the center meanwhile back on mound to all his theory is that what we found is a boat shaped Viking grave yeah this could be the hole that trail Dennis and Doug haha right right so this is where the that's why I've got this strange pit to this very irregular pit partly stone line pulls the parts don't mind me at this end which is the end of a boat if you like yeah it's what about where I'm sitting with a brow wall tonight well if either the prow of the stern yeah sure which end is which but yes he carried himself in the end of the boat shaped stone said yeah the thing was the belly was supposed to have broken up because the bones were pull yes well the other thing that we've been saying this morning is that of course the Victorians weren't that bothered about the bone so we're interested in the case I would have taken the skull yes yeah curio Aven so it's not surprising that bits of bone would find themselves in the up cast from the whole body Doug I must say yesterday all you academics laughed when I said it looks like it could be rubbed out to me oh dummy you don't know much do you well you've got the last laugh on a subdue so far yeah that's great Phil's job now is to clear out the stones that aren't part of the actual boat shaped grave the only mounds that we haven't looked at so far is mound one and we've now started a small trench there hi Tom hey hey getting on all fine just what are we just seeing if it's can or can materialize of bond stone near the top not very big which might been given that eating not any much Sona bond stone don't here yeah but I've got could be more underneath the rubble this is the bottom no no no fines to help us really well let's just turned up literally Kreisler minutes ago a woman that time they do anyone with a year I know Olli what I'm looking at is it looks like a it looks like a nail head yeah I know doesn't it I know the pigs I'll write well that's not gonna be Bronze Age news and well nobody might be Viking ship it's it's similar to rivet heads yeah there you go and on the clue you know think about hiking boots a small boards at least I'm what's in is I'm just in it's similar to the one that come up here under course that skirt once again this was found in the topsoil so it could have been just dropped there but nevertheless geophysics are pleased to hear about it and iron something rely on the story yeah you're lying it came from about there all you do know this is the geophysics blip nearly is that would that give that signal I'd get a small signal from that but we've got some burnt stone here as well yes yes almost the DF is like for this mound relatively quiet very similar to the other can right and we've got one or two anomalies and we've put the trench to actually look at one of the anomalies here and to get a picture of authorities just a can yeah I'll consider that a victory so do our job yeah we just want to roll them there John in Allah I'm afraid those you know votes shaker lots of visitors on site today and they all seem to be heading for Stewart's trench on Mount for when there's a race against time to reveal the foundations of the bode war at the moment we're getting little bits of pottery and Flint again like we've got outside layers what's up today it's still a looking iron age yeah that's the that's the opinion Alex that's good at one level is that we've got all this Iron Age pottery this is Justin this is a broth that's all fitting quite nice it's gonna be a Viking ball as well that's good but we still feel pleased even if it isn't oh absolutely yeah Phil you need to remember there might be a stone built partition across the boat shape setting because they like to build another chamber inside the boat shallow up there about halfway across with it halfway there's no telling to be honest because in the scallop boat it was about two-thirds of the way along the boat but that was a real boat and this is obviously not a real time alright don't build boat so and you know when you're cleaning the section don't just assume every stone is rubble long no no I it might be at the old structure yeah boat shaped Viking graves can be five and a half to seven meters in length which could mean that the other end of this boat would be somewhere near Phil's toolbox at the far end of the trench from the air you do get a fantastic view of this headland and it's also much easier to appreciate the circular shape of the can on mound three and of course the boat-shaped grave we're excavating on now - alright so this is the the one that we're getting the interesting Boat Show bear from and you see they've laid the tape out around the outline of half the boat yes I see them we've got the sort of pointing entity Jen if you sort of mean and again that we're in the middle of a round mound and if we have the time we'd go off that to pick up the curve edge to it how much higher would it have been that it is now well if if that had the burial in it and then all the gray goods they're going to put stones in over the top which is what we can actually see at the other end of the shape there then that's one of the stones still in situ and then of course they're going to build it up over the top of that so it might have been another meter higher hey you guys hang on why it's daily finished yeah last plate now I'm just doing an almost decorative cuts of dirt see think it's so fiddly oh you're terrified you're gonna break one of the teeth oh so far I haven't broken one which is great but I have gone very thin on some of them so and it depends who's going to be the first one to try this as to see yes here see if anything can cope with it on the go with everything well I think we're okay with this one yeah us about the right height so that's the last one it should now be ready for use ah look beautiful it feels so nice in the hand doesn't have any it's or even the curve of the antler actually fits it really nicely yep I think that the test is in the coaming you really think I can really think so happens all right okay big question is it pulling your hair or is he actually working notes on having a bit careful that's fine yep that seems to be okay yeah no it's actually pulling out the tangle scissor steward survey of the wider landscape has given us an idea of what it would have looked like in the Viking period this is where we started off and got the coastline we got the four four big mounds yeah the mound at the north of the Aesop Rock here yeah and the big farm man yeah and this is the coastline this week we now see yeah if it could flip over see um you get a very different picture because I think and the coastline as you can see would have flooded all round here and I think that the island of Ness was an island a tidal island guys there's a causeway Gare cross do it can you see yeah and that would have given it a much more defensible position for the bra catch more important place for ritual for burial it also suggests that this is almost a sort of promontory where the I mean the farm mound is on one property but the whole thing is a promise is sticking out into the Seas last right and that would have been put account also for the amount of build off took to help keep dry yep times almost up but have we managed to make sense of the complicated archaeology in the trench at mound for what do we think nails do it well having dug it out Tony what we've got these a series of deposits over this side which seem to be throwing a pine age pottery and structures over there we've got something here which looks a big part of the same thing he seemed either side and then going over the top we've got a structured wall which is going off in that direction we know it's forming part of a both sided enclosure is it a Viking haul I don't know at the moment it's got nothing that specifically dates it was the last thing that's on here that's the show it's a lot of issues collapse isn't it that's right either side of the wall yeah is that collapsed over your Iron Age sticks it first of it yeah yeah we're not going so if we're not getting any we've got a lot of pottery and Flint's from out this side yeah I'm getting very little from that side so what's happening that side is very different to that side yeah but it's whether it's vise just a peephole that HD it in terms of structure there that wall is not north it is not Viking it's not yours why do you say so definitely it's not nought what can you see that that I can't Norse wolves are fairly broad they tend to be based on the inside and the outside large stones giving facings a core of rubble or perhaps even turf yeah it doesn't fit into the pattern that we have for the Northern Isles meanwhile the ultimate test for the Viking style comb you haven't considered open a shallow nappy huh huh yeah wait your mother hmm I like to tease it apart try on your own bed because of me beard I haven't got a bed oh you show you'd burns whoa-oh-oh the showi burn just definitely dig oh yes they were for bids and hair I feel that you man already look at that I was actually nothing living in there either well it was it was they were used for delousing good I'll just do a few have a girl in the back you'll never get it in the back look at you tidied up for the year cut this evening Oh glad of that among the small army of Islanders visiting the site today are of course shown rude mr. thorn along with everyone else are keen to see what we've discovered this weekend so what can we tell them well we can now say that when the Vikings arrived on sand day in the early 9th century they would have seen a headland dotted with Bronze Age burial caves probably more than we could see today some having been lost through erosion while others may have been plowed away we can also be pretty confident that the Vikings gave it the name the nests of pride because the ruins of an Iron Age broth with a big dish village round it was still very much a dominant part of this landscape and stewards work looking at the floodplains around the nest support the idea that the farm mound of West Brock was most likely the main focus of their settlement while they kept the nest as a special place for the burial of their dead and we found evidence of one of those Viking pagan burials this weekend and this is how we think it might have looked now it's rubbed out does that mean that we think that it's Denison's I think we know that it was Dennison who robbed it out as you say I think we've actually what we now know where the skull and the sword that Dennis and fan came from they came from this point here so I think probably for the first time ever on time team we've actually achieved our goal which was to see whether there were any Viking burial xander these mounds and indeed what was under all the other mounds and I supposed what stuck in my mind most is that this little nose of land yeah on the edge of this island has been used over and over again by different societies of human beings for how many years - about 4,000 years and you're still farming it today yes what's really stuck in my mind is finally getting a comb through Phil's hair that's a first for time to brush for filter

Channel: Reijer Zaaijer

Views: 346,685

Rating: 4.8855324 out of 5

Keywords: time, team, full, episodes, season

Id: 0Hj_MU2Xd3g

Length: 47min 52sec (2872 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2013