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Diving into the Iron Age
In the summer of 2003, a small crew from Time Team spent eight weeks in the beautiful setting of Loch Tay, Perthshire, in Scotland. They were filming the ongoing underwater excavation of Oakbank crannog, an Iron-Age lake dwelling, which was first surveyed in 1979 and is the subject of a full-scale crannog reconstruction at the Scottish Crannog Centre on Loch Tay.
The husband-and-wife team of Dr Nick Dixon and Barrie Andrian had invited Time Team to follow their summer's excavations, and to recap on two decades of work on a site that is causing archaeologists to re-write what we know about life in the Iron Age. Tony Robinson made a flying visit to the site and fronts the film, but for the main part Nick, Barrie and the students who were participating in a summer field school there take centre stage.
Perfect preservation
Oakbank crannog is completely submerged in the clear waters of Loch Tay. Underwater, the peaty loch bed provides almost perfect preservation conditions, and thus supplies more finds and information than equivalent land archaeology. Previous discoveries at the sites had included a wooden butter dish with butter still in it, bronze pins, floor timbers, small insects, a swan-neck pin, beads, a canoe paddle, woven cloth and cooking utensils. Altogether, the excavations on the site have found the remains of some 200 different plant species, including opium seeds and spelt wheat which previously the Romans were believed to have introduced to Britain.
Time Team was particularly excited to be there in the summer of 2003 because not only was this the first time a field school had been organised on the site, but it was also the first time the excavations had delved below the loch bed. Previously, the excavators had just looked at what was lying on top.
Excavating underwater
Excavating underwater is a slow, laborious and often frustrating process. The heavy equipment has to be set up and cleared away each day; the water is extremely cold (less than 5°C); and weather conditions can often lead to silt being washed back over cleared areas. The diggers work in teams of two or three underwater, with a surface air supply. They generally stay underwater for up to three hours before having a break. At all times, there are people doing 'platform duty' which is tedious but an absolute necessity. These are the people who ensure that the divers have a clean supply of air, and stop lines getting tangled.
Underwater, the archaeologists lie on specially constructed metal grids. As well as providing balance, these map out the trenches on the site. The excavators work along their trench, clearing away silt and putting waste material up the suction dredge.
Twigs, leaves and sheep droppings
The disposal of material in this way is one of the hardest things for experienced archaeologists to get used to. The preservation conditions are so good on the loch bed that material that would be regarded as an exceptional find on a land site has to be treated as waste here. Underwater there is simply so much material that it is not possible to raise and preserve it all so miscellaneous Iron-Age twigs, leaves, sheep droppings and other discoveries all go up the spout.
Even so, the dredge pile was thoroughly checked at the end of each day and anything interesting was bagged and brought to the surface, where it could be processed at the on-land storage facility. It made for very long days when dive logs had to be completed, finds analysed and recorded, and dive suits dried ready for an early start again the following morning.
Bringing the Iron Age to life
Excavation has been going on at the Oakbank site since 1980 largely due to the passion and dedication of Nick Dixon, who runs the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology at Edinburgh University. His wife, Barrie Andrian, shares his enthusiasm for the site, and over the years it has turned into something of a life's work for the pair of them.
A few years ago, they used their discoveries and understanding from Oakbank to reconstruct a complete crannog at what is now the Scottish Crannog Centre about four miles away. Based entirely on the archaeological deposits found at Oakbank, the reconstruction not only provides the perfect context to the archaeology, but really brings Iron-Age society to life.
As well as featuring the excavation itself, the Time Team Special at Loch Tay also focused on the experimental archaeology carried out at the crannog centre. Finds made on the loch bed were brought to life through the work of the centre, with Iron-Age fencing and flooring techniques, cooking, fire-lighting and tool-making all featuring. For Nick and Barrie the crannog centre is an integral part of their work and all the visitor fees and other income is ploughed back into research and work at Oakbank.
In the course of the eight weeks, Time Team and the excavation crew experienced teething problems, tension and triumph. By the end of the summer, those present had made significant headway – and some dramatic new discoveries – during their dive into the Iron Age.
In the waters of Loch Tay there are 18 strange mounds, some of which are wholly submerged. These ancient loch dwellings, known as crannogs, were originally timber-built roundhouses supported on piles. Today they appear as tree-covered islands or submerged stony mounds. They were probably defensive and symbols of status.
For further information, see Crannogs and also the Time Team programme from Loch Migdale, which featured in the 2004 series.
The field school featured in the Loch Tay programme comprised some land archaeologists and a few archaeological novices. All of them were competent divers, however, and played crucial parts in the summer's excavations. The school members were:
Trish Dodds
An archaeology major from the United States with a love of archaeology but no underwater excavation experience.
Dr Penny Spikins
A lecturer at Newcastle University, specialising in submerged landscapes and prehistory.
Horacio Ayestaran
Penny's husband and an engineer by profession.
Victoria Timberlake
A fundraiser living in London with no archaeological background, but a very keen interest and passion for the subject.
Morten Engen
A research associate at Newcastle University.
Lawrence Moran
A research associate at Newcastle University.
A team of four relocated to Loch Tay for the summer of 2003 to record the excavations over a period of eight weeks. It was a real team effort with all hands to the deck, and everyone taking on several roles.
Producer/director Graham Dixon also filmed the programme, whilst assistant producer Kate Haddock mastered the art of sound recording. Assistant producer Siân Price provided additional camera, and donned a drysuit to film underwater too. And finally runner Alex Protherough religiously logged shots, set up equipment, drove the vehicles and encouraged a very unhealthy amount of whisky consumption!
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Artificial Islets: Crannogs of the Central Inner Hebrides by Mark W Holley (British Archaeological Reports, 2000) £44
The author's PhD thesis at Edinburgh University was based on his extensive fieldwork on the crannogs of Scotland. Holley maintains the Crannogs on the Web website.
Landscape with Lake Dwellings by Ian A Morrison (Edinburgh University Press, 1986) paperback £7.95
A well illustrated pocket guide to the crannogs of Scotland with sections on typology, structure, form and their place within the landscape.
'Social Prehistory on Scottish Lochs' by Nicholas Dixon and Barrie Andrian, in British Archaeology No 15, June 1996
Online copy of a feature article looking at Scotland's loch-dwellers. Available at: www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba15/ba15feat.html#dixon
The Landscape of Scotland: A hidden history by C R Wickham-Jones (Tempus, 2001) paperback £16.99
From the top of the highest mountain to the bottom of the deepest peat bog, the landscape of Scotland bears witness to the people who have lived and worked on the land for generations. It is the role of archaeology to recognise and interpret these traces, and in this book, archaeological skills are brought to bear on the landscape of today. Individual sections cover settlements, farming, fortification, industry, transport, ceremony and religion, and burials. Each section presents representative sites from all periods and all parts of the country. Rather than using the familiar manicured sites that are laid open for the public, the author takes us to humps and bumps and piles of stone – the ordinary sites which those who like to explore the countryside come across every day (perhaps without knowing it).
Farmers in Prehistoric Britain by Francis Pryor (Tempus, 1998) hardback £18.99
Wearing both his hats as archaeologist and farmer, Pryor has produced an empathic work on the life and methods of prehistoric farmers. Often what survives is just a few cropmarks, but this work brings what is now obscure into vivid reality.
Farmers in Prehistoric Britain by Timothy Darvill (Routledge, 1987) paperback £22.99
Timothy Darvill examines the development of human societies in Britain from the earliest times down to the Roman Conquest, as revealed by available archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through all phases of prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society and population.
The Crannogs of Scotland: An underwater archaeology by Nicholas Dixon (Tempus, 2005) paperback £17.99
Nick Dixon's book brings together the fruits of his longstanding work on Scottish crannogs, at Loch Tay and elsewhere. The book explains the methods of underwater archaeology and reviews the results of the Loch Tay crannog excavations, as well as revealing exciting discoveries from a number of other prehistoric sites. In particular, the excavation of the 2,500-year-old early Iron-Age Oakbank crannog shows what can be found in the well-preserved waterlogged remains: timber floors and wooden walls of houses, bracken and ferns laid on the floor to make the house comfortable, household utensils and agricultural implements – even butter in a wooden butter dish.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
The Scottish Crannog Centre
www.crannog.co.uk
Kenmore
Loch Tay
Aberfeldy
Perthshire PH15 2HY
Scotland
Tel: 01887 830583
E-mail: info@crannog.co.uk
The Scottish Crannog Centre, which is the trading arm of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, is open to visitors from 15 March to 30 November 2004. It features a recreated crannog and causeway open to visitors and is the location for various special events. The website includes background information on crannogs, the crannog reconstruction and underwater archaeology.
Crannogs On the Web
www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/arch/holley/
Website run by the crannog and underwater archaeology specialist, Dr Mark W Holley. It includes a catalogue (with photos) of all known Inner Hebrides crannog sites, a short report of Holley's survey of the Loch Hawe crannogs and a brief introduction to crannogs.
Scottish crannogs
www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/
archaeologylj/crannog_01.shtml
Good introduction by Barrie Andrian to Scottish crannogs, including background on how our knowledge of these structures has developed since they were first identified in the 19th century.
Reconstructing Oakbank Crannog
www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/
archaeologylj/oakbank_01.shtml
Barrie Andrian describes how excavations in Loch Tay from 1979 onwards revealed the remains of an Iron-Age crannog and how these remains were interpreted to create the reconstruction at the Scottish Crannog Centre.
Social prehistory on Scottish lochs
www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba15/ba15feat.html#dixon
Online copy of the feature article looking at Scotland's loch-dwellers, 'Social Prehistory on Scottish Lochs', by Nicholas Dixon and Barrie Andrian, in British Archaeology No 15, June 1996.