Watching Brief

Date 1998

Event ID 928141

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/928141

A watching brief by SUAT Ltd in 1998 on a pipe trench at the eastern corner of this graveyard revealed fragments of disarticulated human bone and a headstone, re-used as paving-slab adjacent to a stand-pipe. The bones were reburied and the gravestone was moved to a safe place. There were no other finds.

This small-scale development comprised connecting the outflow from a stand-pipe adjacent to a small brick-built outbuilding used by the Council staff as a mess room, and a new portaloo which is to be sited next to the building, to an existing outflow pipe 2m away buried beneath a gravel path. This was later revised when the pipe could not be located. Instead, a much longer trencg was cut to connect the new pipe to an existing pipe which runs beneath the cobbled path parallel to the tenement buildings which form the north-east boundary of the site.

The c 15m long trench, which was cut by machine to a depth of 0.7m and to a width of 0.7m, was cut through the gravel path and skirted very close to several headstones. The fill of tbhe trench comprised a much disturbed stony graveyard soil (dark brown clay loam), with moderate small to medium fragments of disarticulated human bone and occasional ceramic pipe stems. No evidence of articulated burials were observed, which are likely to be much more deeply buried. No finds were collected.

In addition, a headstone which had been re-used as a paving slab by the stand-pipe, was removed and put aside in a safe place. The stone had been broken in antiquity and the engraving was difficult to translate. For future reference, the stone can be found propped up against a wall on a concrete ledge behind the new fenced enclosure.

Information from SUAT, 1998

Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust. 1995. A Watching Brief at the Howff, Dundee