Waterlogged Wood
Wood doesn’t often survive in archaeological contexts
Fortunately, some waterlogged deposits at Clachtoll Broch allowed for the preservation of a small assemblage of wooden splinters and artefacts.
Vessel Roughout
Among the wooden artefacts was a fragment of a vessel roughout – a piece of an unfinished bowl, shaped with an axe on the outside and roughly carved out on the inside. It was made from a half-log of alder. Alder has always been favoured for vessel manufacture because of its resistance to splitting and its durability under wet conditions, which make it suitable for holding liquids and food. Possible evidence of another alder vessel at the broch is found in a concentration of alder charcoal around a deposit of grain.
The rough interior surface of the vessel fragment
The smoother exterior surface of the vessel fragment
Measured illustration showing the curve of the bowl
Pins
Two small pins were discovered, both made from a conifer wood. Squared off at one end and shaped to a tip at the other, they were most likely used in joinery, perhaps for small personal items such as storage boxes rather than structural joinery.
Iron Age fir-candles?
Lots of splinters were also discovered, mostly of Scots pine. They may be the result of chopping wood for kindling. However, the tips of some are burnt, suggesting that they may have been used as tapers for lighting, a bit like candles. In the early modern period, splinters of resin-rich pine were used as ‘fir-candles’. About 50 pine splinters, all burnt at one end, were found at Oakbank Crannog in Loch Tay, testifying to the use of this practice in the Iron Age. Experiments have shown that single tapers do not burn well, but emit an even light when bundled together.
This object was fashioned from a thin splinter of Scots pine
It is shaped like a knife blade and is leaf-shaped in cross-section. It might have been used as a spatula-like implement.
