During the late 1st millennium BC into the early 1st millennium AD, the small island of Unst in the far north of the Shetland (and British) Isles was home to well-established and connected farming and fishing communities. The Iron Age settlement at Milla Skerra was occupied for at least 500 years before it was covered with storm-blown sand and abandoned. Although part of it had been lost to the sea, excavation revealed many details of the life of the settlement and how it was reused over many generations. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC people were constructing stone-walled yards and filling them with hearth waste and midden material. Later inhabitants built a house on top, with a paved floor and successive hearths, and more domestic rubbish accumulated inside it. Outside were new yards and workshops for crafts and metalworking, which were remodelled several times. The buildings fell into disrepair and became a dumping ground for domestic waste until the 2nd or 3rd century AD, when sand buried the settlement. Within a few generations, a man was buried beside the ruins along with some striking objects. Thousands of artefacts and environmental remains from Milla Skerra reveal the everyday practices and seasonal rhythms of the people that lived in this windswept and remote island settlement and their connections to both land and sea.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Summary
• 1. Uncovering Milla Skerra
  • The lie of the land
  • Layers in the landscape
  • Fieldwork methods
• 2. The life and death of Milla Skerra
  • Chronology
  • Phase 1: Intermittent activity – 3rd to early 1st millennia BC
  • Phase 2: The early settlement – 6th to 4th century BC
  • Phase 3: A midden heap covers the yard (5) – 4th to 3rd century BC
  • Phase 4: New yards and a house – 2nd to early 1st century BC
  • Phase 5: Continued occupation of the house (1) and remodelling of the yard (3) – 1st century BC to 1st century AD
  • Phase 6: The house (1) is abandoned while the yard (3) and cell (2) continue in use – 1st century AD
  • Phase 7: Final use of the yard (3) and cell (2) and an informal yard (6) in the ruins of the house (1) – late 1st to 2nd century AD
  • Phase 8: Inundation – 2nd to 3rd century AD
  • Phase 9: The burial – 3rd to 4th century AD
  • Phase 10: A temporary camp and further burial – 5th to 6th century AD
• 3. Refining interpretations of the archaeological deposits
  • Soil micromorphology analysis
  • Clare Ellis
  • Phosphate analysis
  • Jo McKenzie
  • Geochemical analysis
  • Brendan Derham
• 4. Fires and food at Milla Skerra
  • The carbonised plant remains
  • Jennifer Miller and Susan Ramsay
  • The mammal and bird remains
  • Catherine Smith
  • The fish remains
  • Ruby Cerón-Carrasco
  • Marine mollusca, with notes on crustacean and echinoidea remains
  • Ruby Cerón-Carrasco
  • Geochemical analysis of pottery residues
  • Brendan Derham
• 5. The making, using and breaking of pots
  • Methods
  • Fabrics
  • Evidence for manufacturing and firing
  • Vessel forms
  • Phase summary
  • Discussion
  • Catalogue of the illustrated pottery
• 6. Craftwork at Milla Skerra: metalworking and bone, stone and iron tools
  • The bog ore and slag
  • Dawn McLaren
  • The block tuyère
  • Amanda Forster and Dawn McLaren
  • Pumice artefacts
  • Beverley Ballin Smith
  • Provenance of the pumice
  • Anthony Newton
  • Re-worked pottery sherds
  • Olivia Lelong and Beverley Ballin Smith
  • Steatite artefacts
  • Amanda Forster
  • Heavy stone tools
  • Ann Clarke
  • Struck quartz
  • Torben Bjarke Ballin
  • Objects made of iron and bone
  • Martin Goldberg and Fraser Hunter
• 7. Technologies of the self: painted pebbles, ornaments and the burial
  • Painted pebbles
  • Ornaments in shale, glass and marine ivory
  • The burial
  • Paul Duffy
  • Technologies of the self
  • Conclusions
• 8. Rhythms of life at Milla Skerra
  • Building and rebuilding
  • Rhythms of food production and craft work
  • Middens and the significance of stuff
  • Seasonal rhythms
  • The character of the settlement
  • Life after death
• Bibliography