Careful recording of the finds from excavations at  Mound 1, Bornais, S Uist has given some indication of how the stone tools were used and stored during the occupation of this Iron Age roundhouse.  Many of the stone tools were clearly deposited in groups;  three discrete groups formed tight concentrations of 50cm to 60cm in diameter and were found against the surviving structures and the other groupings were more spread suggesting that they had been subject to post-depositional disturbance.

Particular combinations of tool types such as pounder/grinders - faceted cobbles (groups A and B) and smoothers – polishers (group C) were a feature of some groups whilst others were exclusively of pounder/ grinders (group E), faceted cobbles (group F) or strike-a-lights (Group D).

The clustering of the tools indicates that they were stored: perhaps they were originally hung in bags from the rafters and lay where they fell after the roof had burnt down; alternatively they could have been stored in bags or baskets set on the floor and tucked against the house wall.

For more information about excavations at Bornais go to www.cf.ac.uk/hisar/archaeology/reports/hebrides99

Rotary querns and stone weights were the most common finds at the excavation of an Iron Age homestead at Black Spout, Perth and Kinross. They were all made from the locally available garnetiferous schist. For more information go to www.pkht.org.uk/Projects/Black-Spout-Homestead-Pitlochry/

With over 25 years of experience in lithic research I offer confident assessment of your stone artefact assemblages. I have an extensive knowledge of flaked lithic, worked pumice and coarse stone tool assemblages from the Mesolithic through to the Early Historic period. All catalogues and reports are prepared to publication level.

Along with freelance work I have initiated  and completed several independent research projects including a synthesis of stone tools from prehistoric Orkney and Shetland (Clarke 2006), a study of the context of coarse stone tools from Mesolithic sites (Clarke 2009) and an examination of the relationship between style and deposition of stone axes from Orkney (Clarke forthcoming).

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