The Cairns Pin

This summer has been an exciting season for the archaeologists working at The Cairns archaeological site on the island of South Ronaldsay, Orkney. For the first time in two thousand years the full extent of an Iron Age broch has been unearthed and further exciting insights into the people who lived there have been discovered. Initial evidence pointing to metal working on the site was confirmed when around 60 clay mould fragments used for casting bronze jewellery were discovered, scattered in a matrix of rubble in Trench M over a five to six metre area. These objects dated from the First Century to the Third Century AD and were present in a roughly made structure that was used only briefly - judging by the thin layer of deposit present in the trench. These objects were extremely fragile, but after cleaning, it was clear that a negative image of a delicate, ring headed pin was present in the clay of one mould. The full story is on our blog http://bit.ly/2cHywNo