Archives - Page 4
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Siller Holes, West Linton: a medieval lead mining site
Vol. 81 (2019)Siller Holes, West Linton: a medieval lead mining site
Author: Valerie E Dean
Contributors: Carol Christiansen, Thea Gabra-Sanders, Anita Quye, Clare Thomas and Maureen Young
Summary: Lead ore (galena) had been extracted from the site of Siller Holes, West Linton (NGR: NT 145 533), from medieval times if not earlier; there, according to tradition, silver was refined from the lead (Pb). Creation of a pond at the foot of Lead Law produced large quantities of textiles, leather and pottery which could be dated to the 12th to 14th centuries; lead, slag and ore were also recovered. As there is no documented reference to the site until the late 16th century, it has not yet been established who was exploiting the minerals.
Keywords: organic material, inorganic material, textiles, pottery sherd
Location: Scottish Borders, Scotland, UK
Period: medieval
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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A Bronze Age barrow cemetery and a medieval enclosure at Orchardfield, East Linton, East Lothian
Vol. 80 (2018)A Bronze Age barrow cemetery and a medieval enclosure at Orchardfield, East Linton, East Lothian
Author: Magnus Kirby
Contributors: Sue Anderson, Ann Clarke, Michael Cressey, Clare Ellis, Mhairi Hastie and Melanie Johnson
Summary: Three ring-ditches, interpreted as a Bronze Age barrow cemetery, and a large ditched enclosure of likely medieval date were excavated at East Linton (NGR: NT 588 771) in advance of residential development. Cremation burials were recovered from all three of the ring-ditches, from their upper ditch fills and from a central pit in one of the ring-ditches. Also mixed into the fills were sherds of pottery, a few lithics, and two stone grinders/rubbers. A large pit close to one of the ring-ditches, which may have been used to dispose of the residue ash from one or more funeral pyres, was also excavated and provides an insight into the wider ritual activity taking place on or near the site. To the east of the barrow cemetery, a meandering length of ditch is considered to be medieval in date and probably forms an enclosure. Radiocarbon determinations produced Middle Bronze Age dates for samples of cremated human bone, with charred grain producing Iron Age and medieval dates.
Keywords: ring ditch, barrow cemetery, pottery sherd, lithic implement, stone polisher, organic material
Location: East Lothian, Scotland, UK
Periods: Bronze Age, medieval
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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Excavations by Gogar Church, Nether Gogar, Edinburgh
Vol. 79 (2018)Excavations by Gogar Church, Nether Gogar, Edinburgh
Contributors: Torben Bjarke Ballin, Beverley Ballin Smith, Donal Bateson, Dennis Gallagher, Richard Jones, Susan Ramsay and Catherine Smith
Summary: This report records the results of an excavation of a medieval settlement next to Gogar Church (NGR: NT 16827 72540) that was discovered within the construction corridor of the Edinburgh Tram line. The remains relate to the medieval village of Nether Gogar and date from the 11th to the 15th century, although later material was also recovered. The results of this work complement previous work on the site of Nether Gogar (Morrison et al 2009) and add to the growing evidence of medieval rural settlement in the Edinburgh area.
Keywords: organic material, corn drying kiln, Churchyard, ditch, coin, jewellery, millstone (smoking), cobbled surface, cereal grain, church, animal tooth, cobbled road, pottery sherd, animal bones
Period: medieval
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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The excavation of a medieval burgh ditch at East Market Street, Edinburgh: around the town
Vol. 78 (2018)The excavation of a medieval burgh ditch at East Market Street, Edinburgh: around the town
Contributors: Anne Crone, George Haggarty, Dawn McLaren, Jackaline Robertson, Penelope Walton-Rogers and Clare Thomas
Summary: In 2015 excavation works undertaken in preparation for a new hotel development at East Market Street, Edinburgh (NGR: NT 26242 73758), encountered the remains of a substantial ditch feature likely relating to previously excavated ditches in the medieval burghs of Edinburgh and Canongate. A substantial stratified artefact assemblage including both animal bone and ceramics was recovered and the waterlogged deposits in the base of the ditch also offered the opportunity for macroplant analysis. These waterlogged deposits afforded the preservation of artefacts including a textile garment, the first of its kind in the British Isles, and leather shoe soles boasting slender waists and turned out, pointed toes. These finds were both attributed to the 14th to 15th centuries, contributing to a vivid picture of the inhabitants of Edinburgh and Canongate in the medieval period. Analysis of both the artefact and ecofact assemblage revealed two phases of use, from the construction of the ditch in the late 12th–13th century to its eventual disuse in the latter half of the 15th century.
Keywords: Footwear, Rim Sherd, Textile, Ditch, Burgh, Ceramic, Animal Bones, Organic Material
Period: medieval
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation at Meadowend Farm, Clackmannanshire: pots, pits and roundhouses
Vol. 77 (2018)Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation at Meadowend Farm, Clackmannanshire: pots, pits and roundhouses
Contributors: Laura Bailey, Torben Bjarke Ballin, Lucy Cramp, Sarah-Jane Haston and Scott Timpany
Summary: The excavations at Meadowend Farm, Clackmannanshire (NGR: NS 9280 9040) produced evidence for occupation at various times between the Early Neolithic and the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Significantly, it yielded the largest and best-dated assemblage of Middle Neolithic Impressed Ware yet encountered in Scotland, comprising at least 206 vessels. Episodes of Early to (pre-Impressed Ware) Middle Neolithic activity were represented by pits and post holes scattered across the excavated areas, some containing pottery of the Carinated Bowl tradition and some with charred plant remains; three blades of pitchstone and one of non-local flint were also found. The phase of activity associated with the Middle Neolithic Impressed Ware pottery (c 3350‒3000 cal BC) is represented mostly by clusters of pits, some containing hearth waste and/or charcoal, charred cereal grain and burnt hazelnut shell fragments. A stone axehead and a broken roughout for an axe- or adze-head were associated with this phase of occupation. There then appears to have been a hiatus of activity of around a millennium before occupation resumed. One Early Bronze Age structure and pits dating to around 2000 cal BC (plus undated pits containing possible Beaker pottery) were succeeded by four Early to Middle Bronze Age roundhouses dating to c 1750‒1300 cal BC and a large pit containing parts of at least 37 pots, and subsequently by two large double-ring roundhouses, an oval building, and ancillary structures and features dating to the Middle to Late Bronze Age, c 1300‒900 cal BC. There is also evidence suggesting low level activity during the Iron Age, plus two medieval corn-drying kilns. Environmental evidence indicates cereal growing from the earliest period, and local woodland management. This publication focuses on the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods and discusses the significance of this site for our understanding of these periods, and particularly for the Middle Neolithic, in Scotland.
Keywords: Roundhouse, Rim Sherd, Blade, Axehead, Bowl, Carinated Bowl, Pottery Sherd, Impressed Ware
Periods: Early Bronze Age, Middle Neolithic, Early Neolithic, Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Neolithic
Location: Clackmannanshire, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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Barabhas Machair: surveys of an eroding sandscape
Vol. 76 (2018)Barabhas Machair: surveys of an eroding sandscape
Contributors: Mark Elliot, Torben Bjarke Ballin and Trevor Cowie
Summary: The townships of Barabhas are on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides between the blanket bog of Barabhas Moor to the east, and machair and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The Barabhas Machair (centre NGR: NB 351 513) has been eroding for at least a century, and of archaeological interest for nearly as long. Survey and excavations over the last 40 years have revealed settlements from the Early Bronze Age to the present day, in a landscape that has been used and reused. This paper is the first of a series presenting the results of this fieldwork, reporting on the results of the surveys and on the results of initial documentary research, and has been produced as part of a wider post-excavation project supported by Historic Environment Scotland.
Keywords: Lithic Scatter, Archaeological Landscape, Croft, Cemetery, Wall, Beaker
Periods: Late Iron Age, Early Iron Age, Late Bronze Age, post-medieval, Early Bronze Age
Location: Western Isles, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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[Gaelic]
Tha bailtean Bharabhais air costa an iar Eilean Leòdhais anns na h-Eileanan an Iar, eadar brat- boglaich Mòinteach Bharabhais chun ear, agus a’ mhachair agus An Cuan Siar air an taobh siar. Tha Machair Bharabhais (meadhan NB 351 513) air a bhith ga bleith fad co-dhiù ceud bliadhna, agus tha ùidh air a bhith aig arc-eòlaichean anns a’ mhachair cha mhòr a cheart cho fada. Tha sgrùdaidhean agus cladhachaidhean thairis air an dà fhichead bliadhna mu dheireadh air tuineachaidhean fhoillseachadh, bho thràth Linn an Umha chun an latha an-diugh, ann an dealbh-tìre a tha air a bhith air a chleachdadh agus air ath-chleachdadh. ’S e seo a’ chiad artaigil ann an sreath a bhios a’ taisbeanadh toraidhean na h-obrach seo, a’ toirt cunntas air toraidhean nan sgrùdaidhean agus toraidhean ciad rannsachadh aithriseach. Tha iad air an cruthachadh mar phàirt de phròiseact iar-cladhach aig a bheil taic bho Alba Aosmhor.
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Fluid identities, shifting sands: Early Bronze Age burials at Cnip Headland, Isle of Lewis
Vol. 75 (2018)Fluid identities, shifting sands: Early Bronze Age burials at Cnip Headland, Isle of Lewis
Contributors: Thomas Booth, Jane Evans, Derek Hamilton, Brendan J Keely, Maureen Kilpatrick, Susanna Kirk, Angela Lamb, Dawn McLaren, Susan Ramsay and Alison Sheridan
Summary: Excavations in 2009 and 2010 on Cnip Headland, Isle of Lewis (NGR: NB 0998 3656) investigated three different burials in shallow pits and on a kerbed mound, containing the inhumed remains of at least nine individuals in both articulated and disarticulated states. Bone histology analysis indicates that the bodies of all but one (a stillborn infant) were allowed to decay and become partly or wholly skeletonised before being buried at this spot. Worn jet beads, a copper-alloy awl and pieces of boar tusk and marine ivory accompanied some of the remains. The burials lay around a cairn, which previous excavations have shown was built in the 3rd millennium BC and then rebuilt twice, with both cremated and unburnt human remains incorporated in it. Another inhumation burial in a stone-lined pit close to the cairn was excavated in the 1990s. Bayesian analysis indicates that the cairn’s first reconstruction and the placing of human remains around it took place over a period of up to 150 years between 1770 and 1620 BC. The headland’s long use for rites involving human remains illuminates relationships between living communities and their lineages in Early Bronze Age north-west Scotland.
Keywords: Burial Cairn, Animal Tooth, Burial, Awl, Bead
Period: Early Bronze Age
Locations: Western Isles, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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[Gaelic]
Dearbh-aithne neo-sheasmhach, gainneamh ghluasadach: tiodhlacaidhean bho Tràth Linn an Umha air Rubha a’ Chnìp, Eilean LeòdhaisÙghdar: Olivia Lelong
Le cuideachadh bho: Thomas Booth, Jane Evans, Derek Hamilton, Brendan J Keely, Maureen Kilpatrick, Susanna Kirk, Angela Lamb, Dawn McLaren, Susan Ramsay and Alison Sheridan
Geàrr-chunntas: A’ cladhach ann an 2009 agus 2010 air Rubha a’ Chnìp ann an Eilean Leòdhais (NGR: NB 0998 3656), rinneadh sgrùdadh arc-eòlach air trì tiodhlacaidhean eadar-dhealaichte ann an slocan eu-domhain agus air tom cabhsaireach anns an robh iarmad daonna naoinear, cuid slàn agus cuid nam pìosan. Tha anailis hiosto-eòlach chnàimhean a’ comharrachadh gun deach leigeil le na cuirp aca seargadh gus an robh iad gu tur, no gu ìre, nan cnàimhichean, mus deach an tiodhlacadh air an làraich seo, ach a-mhàin aon neach (pàiste a bha marbh ga bhreith). Còmhla ri cuid den iarmad daonna bha grìogagan finiche ath-chaithte, brog de dh’ aloidh- copair agus pìosan de thosg tuirc agus ìbhri mara. Bha iad air an tiodhlacadh timcheall air càrn. Dhearbh cladhach a rinneadh na bu tràithe gun deach an càrn a thogail san treas linn BC agus gun deach ath-thogail dà thuras an dèidh sin, le iarmad daonna loisgte agus gun a bhith air a losgadh air a ghabhail a-steach ann. Chaidh tiodhlacadh eile ann an sloc a th’air a lìnigeadh le clachan a chladhach anns na 1990an. A rèir anailis Bayeseach tha e coltach gun deach a’ chiad ath-thogail a dhèanamh air a’ chàrn, le iarmad daonna ga chàradh ann, thairis air ùine suas ri 150 bliadhna, eadar 1770 agus 1620 BC. Tha gu robh an rubha air a chleachdadh thairis air iomadh bliadhna airson deas-ghnàthan co-cheangailte ri bàs a’ soilleireachadh càirdeasan eadar coimhearsnachdan beò agus an sinnsearachd ann an Tràth Linn an Umha ann an ceann an iar-thuath Alba. Chaidh an obair a dhèanamh dha Alba Aosmhor fo Chùmhnant Cladhach Èiginneach Iarmaid Daonna.
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Excavations and interventions in and around Cramond Roman Fort and annexe, 1976 to 1990
Vol. 74 (2017)Excavations and interventions in and around Cramond Roman Fort and annexe, 1976 to 1990
Contributors: Paul Bidwell, Hilary E M Cool, Alexandra Croom, Rob Engl, Kay F Hartley, Nicholas Holmes, Fraser Hunter and Felicity Wild
Summary: Cramond Roman Fort (NGR: NT 19032 76903) has been the focus of archaeological interest since the publication of John Wood’s history of the parish in the late 18th century, with a floruit of activity in the latter half of the 20th century. Playing an important part in this volume of work have been the excavations led by the late Mr Charlie Hoy (died 1991), an Edinburgh amateur archaeologist working principally with the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society and latterly on his own. His excavations have recovered a wide range of evidence from the Mesolithic through the Roman and medieval periods up to the post-medieval development of Cramond House Estate. Hoy’s investigations have been hugely important to our understanding of the Roman fort’s associated annexe/extramural settlement, in particular providing new evidence for its origins in the Antonine period, and for Severan occupation, as well as uncovering a multi-phased road and associated wooden structures. In addition, the artefact assemblage further adds to the corpus from the site and includes an internationally significant sword pendant belonging to a beneficiarius (beneficiarii were troops on special service for the provincial governor) that demonstrates the presence of German troops at the fort, and perhaps hints at the presence of the emperor himself.
Keywords: Frontier Defence, Tower, Annexe, Samian, Amphora, Tile, Vessel, Coin
Periods: Mesolithic, Roman, medieval
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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Achanduin Castle, Lismore, Argyll: an account of the excavations by Dennis Turner, 1970–5
Vol. 73 (2017)Achanduin Castle, Lismore, Argyll: an account of the excavations by Dennis Turner, 1970–5
Contributors: Donald Bramwell, Geoffrey Collins, George Haggarty, Derek Hall, Nicholas Holmes, Andrew Jones, Barbara Noddle and Nigel Ruckley
Summary: Excavations were undertaken at Achanduin Castle, Lismore, Argyll (NGR: NM 8043 3927), over six seasons from 1970 to 1975 under the direction of the late Dennis John Turner (1932–2013), henceforward referred to as DJT. Partly funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and with tools and equipment loaned by RCAHMS (now Historic Environment Scotland), the work was carried out in support of the RCAHMS’s programme of survey in the Lorn district of Argyll. Its purpose was to examine an apparently little-altered but much-ruined example of a castle of enclosure ascribable to a small but identifiably distinct group of rectangular, or near rectangular, courtyard castles. DJT concluded that it was built c 1295–1310 by the MacDougalls, and only later passed to the bishops of Argyll. The authors add their own observations on the excavations in a separate section. They note tenuous evidence for a pre-castle phase. The bulk of the report focuses on the erection and occupation of the castle, followed by abandonment, post-medieval occupation, collapse/demolition and recent times.
Keywords: castle, Pottery, Coin, Brooch, Knife, Buckle, Animal remains
Period: medieval
Location: Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
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Excavations to the west of Gogar Mains, Edinburgh
Vol. 72 (2017)Excavations to the west of Gogar Mains, Edinburgh
Contributors: Torben Bjarke Ballin, Beverley Ballin Smith and Susan Ramsay
Summary: This report records the results of the excavation of a multi-period site that was discovered within the construction corridor of the Edinburgh tram line. The site is located to the west of Gogar Mains (NGR: NT 1577 7276) and to the east of the Park and Ride car park by Edinburgh Airport. It was discovered during an archaeological evaluation in 2006 along the proposed tram route. Following this, an open area excavation uncovered a range of features and structures that date from the Neolithic and Bronze Age through to the Late Iron Age and early medieval period. These features include a palisaded enclosure, two possible corn-drying kilns and a dense concentration of post-holes and pits. During the course of the tram construction programme a military pillbox next to the airport was recorded in advance of demolition (see Appendix).
Keywords: pit, corn drying kiln, post hole, palisaded enclosure
Periods: Bronze Age, early medieval, Neolithic, Iron Age
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence.
