Sometimes it's hard to see the difference between the site and the beach, one having partly derived from the other. In this case, Keith and his buckets mark the bottom on the site, with Caz wet-sieving ‘Swandro-style’ behind him. Part of our remit was that the fills from most areas of the site were to be sieved.

This was mostly done by patient folks up at the top end of the site with dry sieves, but thanks to the weather some of the layers were too wet and Caz, being the only one with wellies, got to do some paddling supervised by three of the ever-curious seals. The three blobs you can see in the water 15 - 20 m out from the shore are seals ... honest!

Return to Rousay II: Part 8 - seals and archaeology

Follow the story on the Swandro Dig Diary; and on Twitter @SwandroOrkney and @WessexArch.

by Jackie McKinley