Wooden case (550 x 325 mm) containing 40 Iron Age pottery shards collected by George Holleyman from a sand-hill site at Balevullin during 1941-3. Early Iron Age shard identified by Dr Ewan Campbell, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology in Glasgow, in July 2018.
Colour photograph of exhibition boards in An Iodhlann ‘The Iron Age on Tiree’ around 1998.
Bag of 6 iron-rich rock fragments collected from Barrapol in 2015.
Collection of items from an Iron Age or Medieval midden at Balevullin
Cardboard box of 17 artefact bags containing a collection of around 600 pieces of pottery sherds, flints, iron slag, bog iron and iron scrap from the remains of an Iron Age or Medieval midden situated in a blown-out dune on Balevullin machair, 100m north of the road cattlegrid between Kilmoluaig and Balevullin (Baca Charachan). Returned to donor from the Treasure Trove department at the National Museum in Edinburgh.
Four pieces of bog iron ore from Vaul
Four pieces of bog iron ore from Vaul, 400m west of Dun Mòr Bhalla. Bog iron ore occurs naturally in wet ground associated with sand. It was refined and used by Iron Age settlers to make tools etc.
Fragments of pottery and other material from Balevullin machair
Around 160 small fragments of clay pottery, cast iron cooking pot (17th-19th century), blacksmithing slag and hearth, and chips off beach cobbles, collected from a midden on Balevullin machair by Dr John Holliday between June 2011 and January 2012. Includes an analysis of the material by Dr Fraser Hunter (original copy filed as 2012.65.2).
Analysis of pottery fragments and other material from Balevullin, 2012
Printed analysis of fragments of Iron-age pottery, blacksmithing slag, cast iron cooking pot and beach cobbles from a midden on Balevullin machair (2012.65.1), by Dr Fraser Hunter of the National Museum of Scotland in 2012.
Information about Iron Age pottery
Information about Iron Age pottery design, markings and uses from a CBA Research Report, including theories about the presence of post-firing drilled holes. Includes printed email from Ian Hewitt regarding holes in Iron Age pottery.
Collection of pieces of iron slag and pottery fragments
Two pieces of iron slag (lumps of residue from iron smelting), the rim of an iron pot and four pieces of pottery found in Balevullin machair in 2010, indicating that iron was being made on Tiree in Iron Age times. Found 100m north of Fiona MacKinnon`s house by Dr John Holliday. Thought to be the first evidence of Iron Age metal working from Tiree. The pottery may have been used as crucibles to melt iron ore, which is available on the island.
Booklet “Old Scatness – Broch and Iron Age Village, Shetland”
Guide book to the history, excavation and preservation of Old Scatness in Shetland, “perhaps the best preserved, excavated, Iron Age site in Britain – or indeed, the world.”
