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Excavation

Date June 2006

Event ID 1015490

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015490

NT 580 747 The final stage of rescue work after the 2003 fire took place in June 2006 (for earlier work see DES 2005, 55-6).

Work focused on two areas:

- the completion of area P, a small rectangular building on the southern edge of the summit, some 50m WSW of the medieval building investigated in 2004-5

- area Q, one of the terraces to the SW of the inner rampart, above the end of the Cruden Wall

The area P building proved to be a single-phase structure terraced into an earlier midden. Surface indications suggest around half of it was exposed, giving overall dimensions of some 12 x 4.5m, with a door in the centre of the N side and a central hearth. Other internal features were a possible post-pad near the W end and a small pit. There was a laid cobble floor, but no occupation deposits survived. However, a terminus post quem was provided by a late Roman glass bead in the wall core. Under the southern wall was a cache of 75 cattle and horse teeth, mostly molars, which is likely to be a votive foundation deposit.

The building had been terraced into an earlier midden which produced large quantities of pottery and bone, and (in contrast to much of the site) had seen little rabbit disturbance. Initial indications from mould fragments are that this is likely to be Late Bronze Age in date. In the area where the N wall of the building later lay, a pit was cut into the top of the midden and lined with stones.

Area Q appeared on the surface as a terrace defined by a tumbled line of stones. Excavation revealed most of a sub-rectangular building with a cobbled surface upslope which was probably a yard. A hearth was set into this. The building had turf walls on stone foundations; those on the downslope side had slumped, but the others were readily traced. Rabbit activity had caused considerable damage, but an internal floor surface and hearth were located. The centre of the building had a levelled cobbled surface; at the ends the surface was more uneven, with cobbled patches among exposed bedrock. No occupation deposits survived and the date is uncertain, although the building's morphology is similar to others from the latest phases on the hill. Within the collapsed remains of the building, a later hearth was built, apparently representing a temporary reoccupation. Finds from hillwash included a complete lower stone of a rotary quern, late Roman pottery and a late Roman glass bead.

Both trenches suggest that in the late phases of the site, around the late Roman period, there was pressure on space, with buildings being constructed in areas previously avoided or used for rubbish disposal.

Archive to be deposited with the NMRS; finds in NMS.

Sponsor: National Museums of Scotland

Fraser Hunter, 2006.

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