[Stones] Time Team on Barra

[Tim P]

Time Team finds Bronze Age relics on Barra dunes
By David Christie (JUNE 3 07)

THE TRANQUIL Hebridean island of Barra became the scene of a mass excavation
last month as Tony Robinson and his fellow Time Team diggers uncovered a
Bronze Age cemetery arguably as impressive as Orkney's Skara Brae.

More than 50 archaeologists and crew from the popular Channel 4 show were
joined by local experts to dig up the Allasdale sand dunes, revealing burial
kists with skeletons dating back almost 4000 years.

During their three-day dig, the team also discovered whale, seal and sheep
bones, a stone wheel house - so named as its internal walls resemble the
spokes of a wheel - and two Iron Age round houses, with one considered the
best preserved in the show's 11-year history of excavating relics.

As with the ancient Orkney houses of Skara Brae, heavy storms were behind
the discovery of the archaeological finds in Barra, with some of the sand
dunes blown away in 2005 to expose human remains and prehistoric houses.

One email to Channel 4 later and the small island, with a population of
around 1000, was soon under invasion. Western Isles archaeologist Carol
Knott, who provided her expert knowledge of the area during the team's brief
visit, overheard the producer say it was one of their most successful
archaeological projects ever.

Knott said: "It was brilliant to get such a concentrated team of experts in
one place, and what they were able to do in just three days would have taken
us weeks. I have a muscle in my right arm I never knew I had, I think I
carried more buckets in those three days than I have in the whole of the
rest of my life."

Presenter Tony Robinson had first thought the curious circles of stones
found on the beach looked as if they were left by teenagers having a
bonfire, only to discover they were in fact ancient burial kists, small
stone boxes used as coffins in the Bronze Age.

The team found the perfectly preserved skeleton of a middle-aged woman, two
kists with infant remains and the cremated remains of a third.
Post-excavation tests by Wessex Archaeology in the next few months are
expected to reveal all kinds of details about life and death on Barra as far
back as bc2000.

Time Team assistant producer Lucia Ashmore said she would be very surprised
if the show doesn't put Barra on the tourist map. She said: "People across
the island were fantastic, lending their support and expertise. It was
clearly a remarkable excavation.

"Whether it is unique I don't know, but it was excellent as far as we were
concerned. It would be wonderful to say it is the new Skara Brae, but that
is quite a big claim to make."

Ashmore described the crew as having a "residential monopoly", having packed
into the various hotels, B&Bs and self-catering homes. Sineag Boyd, from the
Castlebay Tourist Information Centre, said: "During May and June Barra is
very busy anyway with people looking at flowers and birdwatching, but it did
kind of fill up and it was quite difficult to get accommodation on these
days."
"It wasn't a surprise that they found something, but the size of what they
found certainly was. What's going to happen from now I really don't know.
Barra sells itself as a whole rather than just an archaeology site, but
their findings will definitely benefit the area."

Professor Keith Branigan, who has been charting Barra's archaeology since
1988 as part of a Sheffield University research project, said: "The
archaeological record on Barra is incredibly rich, particularly along the
coastline. We recorded more than 2000 archaeological sites covering all
periods from pre-history right the way through to the 19th century.

"The whole of the Western Isles suffers from the fact that its natural
geology doesn't lend itself to imposing architecture like Skara Brae. On
Barra you have a horrible dark coloured stone called gneiss' which breaks
into lumps and isn't particularly attractive. But people have spent just as
much time on the buildings and in many ways they rival Skara Brae and the
like."

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