good news

**Jerry B** · 09-14-2012, 04:46 PM

I just found out today that a book that I contributed to has been published. My contributions were written about a dozen years back and these things can take a long time waiting on specialists to get their contributions completed.

It is not on a military subject but is about a multi period archaeological site on the island of South Uist in the outer Hebrides, which has a significant Late Iron age and Norse period of occupation which is where my contribution comes in, as I wrote most of the reports on the Pottery from the site dating to those periods, though because of other commitments some friends completed the work I started. A previous volume on Mound 3 from the same site had previously been published and I have other volumes from this site and some other sites which have yet to be published.

A Late Iron Age farmstead in the Outer Hebrides: Excavations at Mound 1, Bornais, South Uist
edited by Niall Sharples

The settlement at Bornais consists of a complex of mounds which protrude from the relatively flat machair plain in the township of Bornais on the island of South Uist. This sandy plain has proved an attractive settlement from the Beaker period onwards; it appears to have been intensively occupied from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Norse period. Mound 1 was the original location for settlement in this part of the machair plain; pre-Viking activity of some complexity is present and it is likely that the settlement activity started in the Middle Iron Age, if not earlier. The examination of the mound 1 deposits provides an important contribution to our understanding of the Iron Age sequence in the Atlantic province. The principal contribution comprises the large quantities of mammal, fish and bird bones, carbonised plant remains and pottery, which can be accurately dated to a fairly precise and narrow period in the 1st millennium AD. These are augmented by a substantial collection of small finds which included distinctive bone artefacts. The contextual significance of the site is based on the survival of floor deposits and a burnt-down roof; the floor deposits can be compared with abandonment and adjacent midden deposits providing contrasting contextual environments that help to clarify depositional processes. The burning down of the house and the excellent preservation of the deposits within it provide an unparalleled opportunity to examine the timber superstructure of the building and the layout of the material used by the inhabitants. 280p, 111 col & b/w illus (Oxbow Books, 2012)

**tempelhof** · 09-14-2012, 04:49 PM

Hey Jerry,

Congratulations!

A dozen years wait?

I think perhaps this is one to add to my library, our collector connection such as it is. Besides, I will definitely learn something.

**TrondK** · 09-14-2012, 04:52 PM

Congrats Jerry. I like every thing ancient, so this is very very interesting for me.

**Jerry B** · 09-14-2012, 05:01 PM

For those who are interested the book can be found at Oxbow books and they have a UK and a US site and might have more.

I was paid a fee for this and do not make any money from the sales of the book, it is just a good thing to have done and to have it finally published.

The earlier volume is also still available from the same source for a reduced price.

Oxbow Books/David Brown Book Company

**ObKrieger** · 09-14-2012, 05:12 PM

Great news, Jerry!

While I have never read much about Iron Age Britain, now is a better time than ever to start.

**Jerry B** · 09-14-2012, 05:22 PM

Though I did not work on the excavation of mound one, but was instead supervising the excavation of mound two -still to be published- I did by chance find one of the better artifacts from it, a small fragment of an originally larger bone object with a Norse period Ogham inscription carved on it. This is the earliest evidence for writing in that part of Scotland and was at the time only the sixth portable Ogham to have been found in the world and as far as I know only one more has been found since it's discovery in 1996.