VIKING UNST PROJECT: FIELD SEASON 2008 - Nabo

4.3.2 The Upper House, UnderhoullAs for the 2007 season no bone was recovered in the 2008 excavations due to the adversepreservation conditions for bone caused by the peat cover at the Underhoull site. Howeverevidence of animals being at the site was recovered this year. From within the south westannexe in context [189] a cattle horn was recovered in two pieces (SF1669). This was theactual keratinous horn sheath, (better suited to the preservation conditions encountered atUnderhoull) and not the bone horn core that is more commonly found.4.4 FISH BONESJ.E. Cussans4.4.1 HamarSorting of bulk sample light fractions has revealed the presence of a few fragments of fishbone. Bulk sample SF1321 [1051] from Area C contained three fragments of fish one ofwhich was burnt and all of which were badly degraded. Bulk sample SF1316 [1045], alsofrom Area C contained one very tiny fragment of fish bone. Finally Bulk sample SF1293[350] from Area A contained one possible fragment of fish bone. These remains show thatalthough bone preservation at the site is generally poor there is definite merit in searchingfor such remains in sieved samples.4.4.2 The Upper House, UnderhoullUnderhoull also yielded fish remains from one of the sieved samples examined so far,despite the complete lack of other bone remains at the site. Bulk sample SF903 [166]contained three fragments of calcined fish bone. No doubt that the burning of the bone andthe nature of the ashy matrix within which it was found contributed greatly to the bone’ssurvival.4.5 SOIL MICROMORPHOLOGYJ.T. McKenzie & M.J. ChurchThin section micromorphology is an established technique in archaeology and one which isincreasingly seen as an important extension to both field description and the interpretationof site stratigraphy (e.g. Davidson and Simpson 2001; Goldberg and Macphail 2006).Analysis of micromorphological soil features can not only identify elements relating tohuman activity which may not be identifiable during excavation, but also allow these to beset in context with both the natural pedogenetic and disturbance-related processes to whichan archaeological site is subject, both during and after its occupation. When coupled withmore traditional spatial and stratigraphic archaeological analyses, soil micromorphologycan therefore address key archaeological questions on, especially, the mechanics of siteformation and the nature of the soils and sediments - and therefore the wider environment -of the site in question. A key part of the 2007 Viking Unst excavation season was theselection for micromorphological analysis of a range of contexts at both the Hamar Houses1 and 2, and the Upper House, Underhoull sites. This approach was continued for the 200857