and other archeological sites

Portable Limpetarium 1

The island of Rousey, Orkney, July 2021

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Skaill Farm archaeological dig

 

Venturing north again, I return to the ruined complex of Skaill Farm where my fascination with limpets began, repurposing my wooden sewing box into a portable research cabinet. The process of unearthing and collecting material, creating watercolour studies, filming and conversing with archaeologists over a few days reveals a glimpse of limpet history in this place.

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I am very grateful to Dan Lee and the Skaill Farm team for welcoming me to the site and for the vocal contributions of Christopher Gee, Ragnhild Ljosland, Holly Young and Jo Naden.

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Below is an excerpt from my Skaill Farm diary which describes my experience of excavating:

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...Bringing my gaze closer in, narrowing my depth of field I become aware that my feet are balanced on the brink of a sharp-edged hole in the ground. “Come down” says the archaeologist, “I have a spare trowel you can try”. Using a protruding slab as a step I gingerly lower myself into the earth. It takes a few moments to adjust to this close-up-ness. Gone are the open vistas and air-borne sounds, the wider terrain vanishes from view and like a human microscope I  zoom in on the detailed section of soil, stone and shell. It’s warmer down here, the air is close, dusty, intimate. From where I crouch the space feels slightly claustrophobic, enveloping, confined. But this rectangular domain slowly starts to impart its myriad secrets, my senses honing in on the intricacies of a shrunken world. Shrivelled looking grass roots pierce the upper most surface, penetrating the farm’s rich garden soil in their downward quest for water and nutrients. Intertwined within them, creeping nettle rhizomes, lovers of disturbed places anchor themselves deeper down. Cantilevered stones jut out of the side-walls, some balanced precariously on the edge of falling, others extend horizontally into the surrounding ground. White, powdery cones, likely to be many hundreds of years old shine out from the lower strata, limpet shells out of place, disarranged underground.