Rare island find reveals everyday life in ancient Scots kingdom

It is a discovery that illustrates life of the ordinary islander - far from the elites which dominated them - some 1,500 years ago

Rare traces of working life on a Scottish island some 1,500 years ago have been discovered.

Excavations at Coultorsay on Islay have revealed the remnants of an iron-smelting workshop which was in use between the 6th and 9th Century.

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A shale bracelet, a bone needle, metalworking waste and part of a rotary quern give a tantalising glimpse into the daily tasks of those who worked there.

The workshop dates to the period of the early medieval kingdom of Dál Riata, which was centred on the royal fortress of Dunadd and which spanned modern-day Argyll and Bute.

Archaeologists have hailed the significance of the finds given they show life in the “lower eschelons” of the kingdom with archaeology of this period usually linked to the elites of the day.

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Meanwhile, the early medieval workshop was built in the remains of a “figure of eight” building, a style of domestic structure linked to the Picts who were primarily concentrated in the north and east but had growing interests in Dál Riata and its rulers during the period through marriage and warfare. Maureen Kilpatrick, who led the excavation for GUARD Archaeology, said several phases of activity were recognised at the site.

She said the Coultorsay workshop was a relatively modest structure and sat in contrast to many known metalworking workshops from early medieval Scotland, which were “often enclosed within royal or lordly strongholds”. Ms Kilpatrick said: “It conforms to a hierarchy of settlement found during this period, with slight buildings such as this characterising the lower echelons of society.

“Indeed, it is easy to imagine the early medieval landscape of Islay characterised more by slight buildings such as this, where the majority of the population resided, than the more substantial fortified settlements that dominate discussion of the archaeology of this period.

“The most significant was the change in function of the building from one of domestic use to that with an industrial focus. This took place after the domestic building had fallen into a state of disrepair.”

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The excavation was undertaken ahead of new warehouses being built for the Bruichladdich Distillery, Very few sites dating to the early medieval period have been excavated on Islay with most known sites being ecclesiastical in origin, such as chapels and burial grounds, several with fragments of early cross slabs.

The Coultorsay workshop was a relatively modest structure which was used for smelting bog ore to extract iron bloom which could then be made into tools and weapons somewhere else.

The workshop was repurposed from the dilapidated shell of the figure-of-eight building, which was “particularly important” as it offered new information about those living on Islay out-with religious sites. The similarity of the earlier figure-of-eight house to cellular Pictish buildings suggests that this form of architecture was more widespread across Scotland than previously envisaged, the archaeologist said.

The GUARD excavation also revealed the remains of prehistoric structures and activity from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age across the hillside terrace where the workshop lay.

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The timeline of the site now indicates relatively transient activity during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods before more settled occupation began in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age followed by a gap of about 500 years before occupation re-appeared during the early medieval period.

The Dál Riata kingdom came to an end in the mid-9th Century when Kenneth I brought together the Scots and Pict, with the country then known as Scotland.

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