New evidence for the origins and evolution of Dunbar: excavations at the Captain's Cabin, Castle Park, Dunbar, East Lothian

Abstract

Report of an excavation in 1998 on the site previously occupied by the former lock house of a military barracks. A sequence of deposits was identified reflecting around 2,000 years of human influence. The earliest feature identified was a large ditch which may have formed part of the defences/enclosure system of the promontory fort previously identified at Castle Park. A rectangular building, probably contemporary with the Anglian occupation of the area, was built over the top of the ditch. Between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD the site was used as a cemetery. A midden above the cemetery and below the foundations of the military barracks contained a substantial quantity of elephant ivory off-cuts in deposits dating to the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Includes