During the Iron Age, the Cairns Broch—a tower-like stone building of monumental proportions—dominated the landscape of Windwick Bay, a rocky cove in the Scottish archipelago of Orkney. Equal parts house, fort and status symbol, the broch stood at the center of an ancient settlement until some point between the later 1st and mid-2nd century A.D., when it was sealed and subsequently abandoned.
Today, the broch continues to stand over the Cairns region of South Ronaldsay. This month, researchers from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute announced two singular discoveries made during ongoing excavations at the site: a 2,000-year-old wooden bowl likely used to serve food or drink, as well as strands of human hair dating to the same Iron Age period.
The Scotsman’s Alison Campsie reports that both the hair and bowl were found in “The Well,” a subterranean chamber of the broch. According to the UHI Archaeology Institute’s blog, the underground space is exceptionally well preserved, boasting an intact roof and stone-cut steps leading down into the heart of the chamber, which is filled with muddy silt. The chamber appears to have been sealed in an anaerobic state, or without oxygen, meaning that bacteria were unable to damage the items.
Given that the chamber was sealed around the same time the broch was abandoned, the archaeologists believe their finds date to the later 1st through mid-2nd century A.D.; however, they plan on conducting radiocarbon dating tests to determine if the items are even older than estimated.
Martin Carruthers, UHI lecturer and excavation director, tells Campsie that the team unearthed about 20 strands of hair, with more likely hidden in muddy soil samples still to be analyzed.
“It looks like human hair,” Carruthers says. “It is pliable, if you blow on it, it moves. It is shiny, dark and measures around [three to four inches] long, so potentially it records eight to 10 months of information about diet and the conditions people were living in.”
Although the team has prev