Publication Account

Date 1975

Event ID 1015455

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015455

Traprain Law hillfort, which went through a series of reconstructions, was extensively excavated at intervals between 1915 and 1921 but the sequence of layers that yielded large quantities of finds could not at that time be adequately defined or related to the ramparts. Subsequent careful surveys and limited excavation of the ramparts have established a structural history for the hillfort, but how the finds relate to this is still not clear. The situation of the site is commanding, overlooking a wide stretch of fertile farmland and having formidable natural defences. In Roman times the surrounding territory was that of the Votadini, whose capital was doubtless Traprain Law.

The finds recovered from the excavation indicate a millennium of possibly continuous occupation from the Late Bronze Age (in the seventh or even eighth century BC) down to post-Roman times. The site produced rare examples of Late Bronze Age metalwork (NT57SE 1.03) - socketed axes, knives, chisels, spears and so on - apparently in association with pottery (a plain gritty ware) and stone hut sites. Judging by other dated examples, there may well have been a wooden palisaded enclosure on top of the hill at this time. The great mass of objects recovered from the upper levels belong to the pre-Roman Iron Age and to Roman times, and include a spectacular hoard of late Roman silver (NT57SE 1.18), which, with many of the other finds, is on display in the National Museum in Edinburgh. In general, the ramparts run round the hill from S through W to the NE end; the long and straight precipitous edge on the SE side appears to have been a sufficient protection on its own, and lacks ramparts.

The defences of the earlier phases of the hillfort are naturally inconspicuous, having being robbed of material for the later ones. The most striking to the visitor is the latest, which is a wall 3.7m thick with a turf core faced with stone; this extends for some 1070m around the hill, encloses about 0.12 sq km (30 acres) and overlies all the other ramparts. It seems to represent a reduction in size of the oppidum from the previous phase and, belonging to the latest phase of occupation, may have been used until about the middle of the 5th century.

The previous rampart evidently enclosed an even larger area of about 0.16 sq km (40 acres). It followed the course of the final rampart except along the N face of the hill, diverging from the former at the W end and running diagonally down the N slope towrds the quarry. Near the quarry is an entrance through this rampart, near which relics of the first century AD were found in 1915; the 40-acre oppidum may have been built early in that century but a construction several centuries earlier is easily possible. The site must have been a barbarian town at that time, with numerous thatched wooden or stone-walled huts, and many specialist craftsmen plying their trade. Bronze craftsmen were concentrated there, judging by the numerous ornaments of that metal (many enamelled) that were found. Many iron weapons and agricultural implements give a valuable picture of the equipment of a wide section of the community.

The previous (second) phase of the hillfort seems to have occupied the same area as the fourth but its remains are naturally difficult to disentangle from those of the latter. The earliest fortifications appear to be represented by the now-incomplete remains that run along the W end of the highest part of the hill, on the crest of the slope. This would elsewhere have followed the course of the second and fourth lines of defences and perhaps enclosed an area of 0.08 sq km (20 acres). Since the trenches that revealed the Late Bronze Age settlement were further west at the foot of this slope, it would seem that the first hillfort is later than that phase.

There is no doubt that if Traprain Law was stratigraphically excavated, the sequence of defences worked out and linked with the sequence of finds, it would be a key site for the archaeology of northern Britain.

E W MacKie 1975.