Mike Parker Pearson - Excavations at Cill Donnain: A Bronze Age Settlement and Iron Age Wheelhouse in South Uist

Published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by
OXBOWBOOKS
10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW

and in the United States by
OXBOWBOOKS
908 Darny Road, Havertown, PA 19083

Oxbow Books and the individual authors 2014
Hardcover Edition ISBN 9781782976271
Digital Edition ISBN 9781782976288

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Parker Pearson, Michael, 1957
Excavations at Cill Donnain : a Bronze Age settlement and Iron Age wheelhouse in South Uist / by Mike Parker Pearson
and Marek Zvelebil ; with contributions by Sean Bell, Gordon Cook, Chris Cumberpatch, Martin Dearne, Irene Deluis, Karen
Godden, Pam Grinter, John Hamshaw Thomas, Kate MacDonald, Peter Marshall, Eddie Moth, Jean Luc Schwenninger,
Helen Smith, Saleem ul Haq, Soultana Maria Valamoti and Kim Vickers. -- Hardcover edition.
1 online resource. -- (Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides ; volume 9)
ISBN 978-1-78297-628-8 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-78297-629-5 (mobi (kindle)) -- ISBN 978-1-78297-630-1 ( pdf) -- ISBN
978-1-78297-627-1 (hardcover) 1. South Uist (Scotland)--Antiquities. 2. Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--South
Uist. 3. Bronze age--Scotland--South Uist. 4. Iron age--Scotland--South Uist. 5. Human settlements--Scotland--South
Uist. 6. Dwellings--Scotland--South Uist. 7. Material culture--Scotland--South Uist. 8. Human ecology--Scotland--South
Uist. 9. Social archaeology--Scotland--South Uist. 10. Economics, Prehistoric--Scotland--South Uist. I. Zvelebil, Marek.
II. Title.
DA880.S75
936.1'14--dc23

2014027123

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Front Cover: Stages in constructing the Cill Donnain wheelhouse (drawn by Irene Deluis)

Contents

List of Figures

Preface Marek Zvelebil making the best of South Uists inclement weather

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Illustrations were drawn by:

Marcus Abbott ()

Chris Cumberpatch ()

Irene Deluis ()

Ian Dennis ()

Karen Godden ()

Anne Leaver ()

Peter Marshall ()

Colin Merrony and John Raven ()

Eddie Moth (or other unknown illustrators in Sheffield) (; all updated to publication standard by M Parker Pearson)

Mike Parker Pearson ()

Jean-Luc Schwenninger ()

Photographs were taken by:

Marek Zvelebil ()

Mike Parker Pearson ()

Jean-Luc Schwenninger (Preface, )

Unknown ()

Contributors

Sean Bell, Manor Oaks Farm, 389 Manor Lane, Sheffield

Andrew Chamberlain, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester

Gordon Cook, SUERC, Rankine Avenue, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride, G75 0QF

Chris Cumberpatch, independent consultant, Sheffield <>

Martin Dearne, c/o Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1

Irene Deluis, archaeological illustrator, Sheffield <>

Karen Godden, c/o Institute of Archaeology, UCL, Gordon Square, London WC1

Pam Grinter, c/o Birmingham Archaeo-Environmental, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham

John Hamshaw-Thomas, c/o Silverdale School, Bents Crescent, Sheffield

Kate MacDonald, Uist Archaeology, Clarkston, Lochboisdale, South Uist

Peter Marshall, Chronologies, 25 Onslow Road, Sheffield

Mike Parker Pearson, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, Gordon Square, London WC1

Jean-Luc Schwenninger, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford

Helen Smith, c/o School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University

Saleem ul Haq, Archaeology department, Government of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Soultana-Maria Valamoti, School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Kim Vickers, c/o Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield

Preface

Marek Zvelebil died aged 59 on 7th July 2011, just days before we planned to start finally bringing this project to publication. He directed the excavations at Cill Donnain over three field seasons in 19891991 and many of the specialist reports were written within the next few years, but Marek did not find easy the post-excavation stage of the project. By 2005 he had given up on the manuscript and handed responsibility to me. This was Mareks first and only experience of being sole director of an archaeological excavation; whilst he enjoyed field survey, running a major excavation project turned out not to be his forte. As a leading authority on the MesolithicNeolithic transition, he was also straying far from his area of expertise in taking on this Iron Age site. The story goes that his Sheffield colleagues drew him into the departments SEARCH project in the Western Isles by telling him that the site at Cill Donnain could be Mesolithic since it was clearly a shell midden, a type of site often dating to the Mesolithic in northern Europe.

In 1991 I joined Sheffield Universitys South Uist arm of the SEARCH project and, together with Niall Sharples, began excavations at the broch of Dun Vulan. We visited the Cill Donnain excavation frequently during that three-week season and were able to follow its progress fairly closely. The weather that year was extremely wet, and virtually no work was possible in the first week because of torrential rain. Mareks team then worked through two weeks of bad weather to complete the excavation, reaching the bottom of the wheelhouse deposits and exploring a small part of the underlying Bronze Age remains. Mareks heart, though, was not in the work and he was often to be found during working hours in the lounge bar of the Lochboisdale Hotel or taking an early bath in our staff lodgings at South Lochboisdale House. After working hours, Marek enjoyed the finer things in life. The availability of produce in the local shops in South Uist was strictly limited twenty years ago but we all looked forward to Mareks turn on the cooking rota a haunch of venison would be mysteriously obtained, high-quality wines purchased, and rich French sauces conjured out of multiple packs of butter.