Excavation
Date January 1992 - March 1992
Event ID 1006625
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1006625
The rebuilding of the THF/BP service station necessitated the investigation of this field system. This investigation consisted initially of geophysical survey using both resistivity and magnetometry followed by trial trenching using a JCB. The results of the geophysical survey indicated archaeological features additional to those apparent in the aerial photograph. The trial trenches confirmed this, revealing a large spread of black organic soil with lenses of grey and white clay against a background of red sandstone-derived sandy clay.
Excavation was undertaken in January-March 1992 by GUARD of the features revealed. The larger area incorporated within the excavation trench revealed a large number of features. There were over one hundred post holes, roughly twenty large pits, four major boundary ditches, three minor ditches, two major cobbled areas and a roadway leading to the adjacent enclosure of Warden's Dyke. There were also ephemeral traces of two rectilineal structures shown by shallow cuts, truncated by one of the major ditches. Find recovery was very low; the entire artefactual assemblage consisted of nine lithics, of which three were surface finds without context.
The analysis of the site is currently ongoing, so interpretation is at an early stage. However the remains have been divided into five rough chronological categories on stratigraphic grounds.
Phase I consisted of the two rectilineal cuts.
Phase II included both the rodaway and the major ditches.
Phase III consisted of the re-cut of two of the major ditches and the activity represented by the post holes and pits.
Phase IV consisted of thre laying of the cobbled areas, while
Phase V consisted of the digging of the minor ditches.
These rough phases will be re-assessed during the post-excavation analysis and may be combined or further subdivided.
Sponsors: BP Oil UK Ltd, Welcome Break, Trusthouse Forte.
I Banks 1992.
