VIKING UNST PROJECT: FIELD SEASON 2008 - Nabo

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Eight indeterminate steatite fragments are identified as unworked steatite; six from Area Aand two from Area C. They are scattered across several different contexts.3.3 POTTERY & FIRED CLAYL.D. Brown3.3.1 UnderhoullThe pottery assemblage from the 2008 excavations at Underhoull stands in the region of400 individual sherds. The majority of the assemblage (85%) was recovered from thedeposits in Area A (north of the baulk), the remaining 15% from Area B (south of thebaulk). The pottery can be characterised as being made from a sandy, often dark grey claywith a high mica content and quartz grit inclusions. Occasional steatite, and unidentifieddark grits are present in some of the sherds. Although for the most part dark grey, thesherds range in colour and include buff, brown and dull orange (mostly on the exteriorsurface of the sherd). In terms of form, the vessel walls appear fairly straight and plain withthe tops of the rim being either rounded or squared. A small number of bases were notedwithin the assemblage, both round-angled and square-angled being recorded. Where sherdsretain the exterior surface, it is generally not well finished and has a bumpy, fingermouldedappearance.Of the assemblage from Area A, the pottery from context [185], an occupation-type depositin the centre of the structure (top room), accounts for 90% of the assemblage. This contextis sealed by [070] which in turn is sealed by [021], a deposit which yielded the majority ofthe pottery from Underhoull during the 2007 excavations. If the pottery recovered from[070] and [185] in 2008 is added together, it then accounts from 95% of the potteryassemblage from Area A. It is likely that many of the sherds from this context will fittogether; conjoining sherds will be investigated and an estimate of the number of vesselsrepresented will be produced. Of particular interest within context [185] are the following.Six sherds (two body and four fragments) from this context have an incised line on theexterior surface. In each case, the line is fairly crudely incised. It is possible that thesesherds are from the same vessel. A further body sherd (SF1573), again from [185], isdecorated on the exterior surface. Only a small amount of the design survives on the sherd,but it is clear that it is an incised zig-zag.Several fragments of white glazed pottery with a stamped blue/purple pattern were foundwithin the silty peat deposit in the gully to the north of the north wall of the structure inArea B. These sherds appear to be from the same vessel. A single rim sherd from a pipkinwas also found within Area B, from the same deposit (described above). This sherd is finered/orange clay with a brown glazed interior surface and a ridge decoration on the exterior(running around the circumference of the vessel rim).3.3.2 HamarA small assemblage of pottery was recovered from the excavations at Hamar; three bodysherds and several fragments from Area A, and 23 sherds from Area C. The pottery fromArea A (House 1) comes from a deposit overlying the bedrock in the west side of the upper44
oom. The three body sherds are fairly heavily abraded, have a wall thickness of c.13mmand have quartz grit inclusions within the gritty-textured clay matrix. In addition to thepottery, four amorphous pieces of fired clay were recovered from within several contexts inArea A; two from the upper room and two from the gully in the lower room.The material from Area C (House 2) comes from two deposits outside of the structure, oneto the north (consisting of one body sherd) and one to the south (consisting of three rimsherds and 19 fragments). The rim sherds, two of which conjoin, all have a squared top andare straight-walled. The wall of the rim sherds has an average thickness of 7.5mm. Bothsteatite and quartz grits are present within the sandy, dark grey clay. An amorphous pieceof clay was recovered from the north of the structure.A small amount of later pottery was recovered from the excavations at Hamar, mostnotably a clay pipe bowl fragment, SF1075, from the area to the north of the structure(House 2) in Area C. The bowl is a slender, tall type. The bowl is devoid of markings,however the base of the heel is marked, in relief, with ‘IP’. Above the letters is a crown.The letters ‘IP’ refers to a maker in London or Bristol in the 17 th century; furtherinvestigation is needed to narrow down the maker. A small round angled base fragment(SF1164) was found within the gravel deposit (context [369]) on the upper room of House1 in Area A. The sherd is a fine orange clay (redware) with a linear brown and yellow slipdecoration on the interior of the sherd. There is also a small perforation through the base atthe point of breakage.3.4 METAL FROM HAMAR & UNDERHOULLJ.G. McDonnell & Z. OutramFollowing the 2008 excavation season, a preliminary assessment of the ferrous and nonferrousmetal assemblage was carried out. The aims of the assessment were to identify themain types of evidence recovered from both Hamar and Underhoull, as well as assessingthe analytical techniques that could be applied. The assemblage has been summarised intables 3.4 and 3.5.Area SF Context Metal DescriptionnumberB 709 123 Fe Wire/nail shaft- 711 Unstrat. Fe Nail shaftB 769 141 Cu-alloy/Fe Copper alloy and Iron bimetallicobjectB 817 101 Fe Fe fragmentB 1061 074 Fe Nail shaftB 1088 167 Fe NailB 1187 140 Fe Fe objectB 1676 189 Fe Fe fragmentA 1811 185 Fe 4 Fe fragments – one may be anail headA 1868 185 Fe? Natural?45
Page 1 and 2: VIKING UNST PROJECTEXCAVATIONS AT H
Page 3 and 4: This is a provisional report on the
Page 5 and 6: PART TWO: PERSONNEL AND RELATED RES
Page 7 and 8: PART ONEEXCAVATIONS AT HAMAR &THE U
Page 9 and 10: A geophysical survey of the site wa
Page 11 and 12: The 2006 & 2007 excavation seasonsT
Page 13 and 14: sites are multiperiod settlements s
Page 15 and 16: more complex; geophysics would be a
Page 17 and 18: floor surface included fragments of
Page 19 and 20: Lower room & ash pitWork also concl
Page 21 and 22: Figure 2.2: Plan of the sunken floo
Page 23 and 24: External DepositsA section was exca
Page 25 and 26: along the north edge (open side) of
Page 27 and 28: Figure 2.5: The south east annexe,
Page 29 and 30: At the lower (easternmost) end of t
Page 31 and 32: 3. SUMMARY OF FINDS FROM THE 2008 S
Page 33 and 34: 46mm) with working marks on three s
Page 35 and 36: 3.2.2 A geological assessment of th
Page 37 and 38: minerals are chemically stable in n
Page 39 and 40: the same stone. SF721 (context [117
Page 41 and 42: context [185] is a fine example of
Page 43: close proximity of steatite outcrop
Page 47 and 48: Greenland and Iceland that a number
Page 49 and 50: channel changes from U-shaped to V-
Page 51 and 52: 4. ENVIRONMENTAL EVIDENCEJ.M. Bond,
Page 53 and 54: The cereals recovered are hulled si
Page 55 and 56: five barley grains and a single oat
Page 57 and 58: 4.3.2 The Upper House, UnderhoullAs
Page 59 and 60: [176]. The identification of microl
Page 61 and 62: iron within the soils (Gaffney & Ga
Page 63 and 64: 63Figure 4.1: The graphical represe
Page 65 and 66: SitecodeSamplecodeContext SFnumberA
Page 67 and 68: presence of tephra within the depos
Page 69 and 70: has been widely criticised as too g
Page 71 and 72: Outram, Z., Cussans, J.E., Summers,
Page 73 and 74: Level Two StudentsKirsty BennellJoh
Page 75 and 76: 8. BIBLIOGRAPHYAlsvik, H. and Batey
Page 77 and 78: Davidson, D.A. and Simpson, I.A. 20
Page 79 and 80: McDonnell, J.G. 2000. Pyrotechnolog
Page 81 and 82: 700s-800s: a potential alternative

VIKING UNST PROJECT: FIELD SEASON 2008 - Nabo

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