Wooden bowl found in a peat moss

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This wooden bowl was found in a peat moss at Airds at Ness in Shetland. It was carved out of a solid piece of driftwood, sometime between 420 and 100 BC. Even though few trees grew in the Northern Isles, driftwood provided the raw material for objects.

The bowl is unfinished and clearly shows the marks from the tools used to carve it from the driftwood.

Wood was plentiful and early people used it skilfully, employing a range of axes and other tools for different tasks. Wooden objects survive only where conditions are favourable, and few therefore survive to indicate the range of objects made.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-000-053-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  W.SFA 13
• Date: Between 420 and 100 BC
  
• Material: Wood
  Bowl
  
• Dimensions: 9.50" x 8.25"
  
• What: Bowl
  
• Subject: The kitchen - wooden bowls for cooking or table (NMAS Classification)
  
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Ross and Cromarty, Lewis, Ness, Airds
  
• Event:
• Description: Unfinished carved wooden bowl from a moss at Airds, Ness, Lewis
  
• References:
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