C.I.L.P
Iona
Iona is renowned for being an ecclesiastical centre founded in AD 563 by St. Columba. It is also renowned for the spread of Celtic Christianity, its artworks and one of the earliest laws ''the law of the innocents'' established to protect women and children in times of war. It is equally well known that the island was attached on numerous occasions in the late 8th-9th centuries AD, but there have been numerous debates amongst scholars regarding the impact on the monastic community.
We recently published and article in Environmental Archaeology entitled: ''Identifying Social Transformations and Crisis during the Pre-Monastic to Post-Viking era on Iona: New Insights from a Palynological and Palaeoentomological Perspective''. However, the paper has also led to some unanswered questions: 1) What has caused the seesaw representation of birch trees? Has it been caused by a brief crisis? such as prolonged Viking attacks or could there be another explanation. 2) There appears to be a change in economy and intensification in pastoral farming from the 10th C onwards - likely linked to Norse settlement in the western Isles, but can we confirm this pattern of change at other sites on Iona and other islands such as Tiree which will be investigated as part of our new project.
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Ewan Campbell & Adrian Maldonaldo's article can also be found: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/new-jerusalem-at-the-ends-of-the-earth-interpreting-charles-thomass-excavations-at-iona-abbey-195663/36F808DDF43B6311D307417A3B8D2434
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Renewed Investigation: Fieldwork 14th-16th May 2023
Prior to our visit one core had already been extracted by Prof Martin Lee from the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow and we have already sent a few samples off from this core for 14C dating. We will conduct pollen analysis on it if the dates are good; Martin’s core is around NM 264 231 - (see map for location).
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During our fieldwork we extracted 3 cores from different locations. Fieldwork was very much a team effort and included Ewan Campbell, Tim Mighall, Antonio Foddai and myself. The coring was exhausting but fun and we were lucky with the weather and I'm still trying to figure out how Antonio and me got sun burnt and Tim and Ewan didn't ;).
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Machair a: NM 26944 23113
Scaife & Dimbelby NM 27738 24845
Vallum NM 28469 24520.
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Here are some more photos of the sites and core samples:
Right: A peat depression close to the vallum and the core we extracted from it.
Left: A rainbow over the Benedictine Abbey - Photo by Ewan
Above: a bog bean flower from Scaife and Dimbleby's core location
Above: Walking along the Machair on the west coast
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Left: A core segment from the Machair a location
Left & right:
The location of
Scaife and Dimbleby's core - Photos by Ewan
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Left: Antonio, me & Tim's behind ;)
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Photo taken by Ewan
Results so far inconclusive.
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The vallum dates came back too old - so re-analysis of this one is a def no, no.
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The Machar did produce two 6th century AD dates but the dates so far are mixed and in a profile full of stones so likely erosional inwash has mixed the whole sequence, but is it worth while risking any more 14C dates or not is the question???
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The Scaife and Dimbleby core so far is too young: 66 cm dates to between the 16-1900's. No more dates have been sent off yet, but I would like to try another date further down depending on our budget left.
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