Catpund is a quarry site in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, where

steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...

vessels were cut from the rock from prehistory onwards. The quarrying marks are still visible today.

Location

The Catpund quarry is located beside a

burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...

Mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...

History

Steatite is also known as

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...

or in the Shetland dialect - diales, kleber, klever or clammel. These terms have their origin in Old Norse. It has a number of properties that made it an attractive material to past peoples. The high talc content means that it is soft, so easily carved, it hardens on exposure to air or heat and it can be heated and cooled without shattering.Bray, I, Forster, A, Clelland, S-J 2009 ''Steatite and Shetland: a geological introduction and gazetteer of sites'' in Turner, V & Forster, A (eds) Kleber: Shetland's Oldest Industry Shetland Amenity Trust Evidence of quarrying from Catpund has been recognised from the 1940s at the latest. An excavation in 1988 revealed part of the quarry floor including the hollows remaining from over one hundred soapstone vessels. Similar vessels were discovered in the later Norse levels at

Jarlshof Jarlshof ( ) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It con ...

dating to the 12th and 13th centuries AD.

Description

Quarrying scars can be seen along the bank of the burn of Catpund where vessels were chiseled from the rock. Similarities with vessels from Jarlshof indicate that the quarried vessels were likely of Norse date.

Archaeological finds

There are twenty three recorded sources of steatite on Shetland, but of these only two have been excavated, Catpund and Clibberswick on

Unst Unst (; sco, Unst; nrn, Ønst) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of . Unst ...

.Turner, V, Sharman, P and Carter, S 2009 “Excavations at Catpund, Cunningsburgh” in Turner, V & Forster, A (eds) Kleber: Shetland's Oldest Industry, Shetland, Amenity Trust Several fragments of steatite vessels have been discovered from Catpund and are currently found in the

Shetland Museum The Shetland Museum and Archives is a museum in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland. The new Shetland Museum at Hay's Dock was officially opened on 31 May 2007 by Queen Sonja of Norway and the Duke & Duchess of Rothesay (Charles & Camilla). Previous b ...

and the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

. A prehistoric house was excavated in 1988 in advance of industrial quarrying. The artefacts found indicated that domestic activities took place there, and that the house was in use some time during the middle to late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. Further excavations the 1980s and early 1990s ahead of mineral extraction by the Shetland Talc company shed more light on the quarrying process. Over ten tonnes of material was recorded by the archaeologists and were either blocks, pieces steatite not yet formed into a blank, blanks, pieces with a rough shape to it ready for finishing into a vessel and finished vessels. The majority of the quarrying appears to date to the Viking periods. No tools were found at Catpund but analysis of the tool marks on the steatite pieces suggested they used blunt or pointed chisels.

Images

File:Catpund quarry closeup - geograph.org.uk - 39669.jpg, Quarry workings at Catpund quarry File:Catpund Quarry, Shetland - geograph.org.uk - 226214.jpg, Soft grey soapstone veins

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Shetland Scheduled monuments in Scotland Quarries in Scotland Mainland, Shetland