Excavation

Date 11 April 2016 - 22 April 2016

Event ID 1022427

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1022427

NO 8821 8464 As part of the Northern Picts Project surveys and excavations have been undertaken in an area stretching from Aberdeenshire to Shetland targeting sites that can help contextualize the character of society in the early medieval period in northern Pictland. A ten day field season carried out at Dunnicaer, 11–22 April 2016, aimed to further the investigation of settlement remains on the sea stack from

which five Pictish symbols have been recovered.

During the 2016 season five trenches were opened. The main trench (c5 x 7m) was located in the upper terrace and identified two stone-built hearths and associated floor layers in the SE half of the trench. A fragment of Samian pottery was found in the fill of cut features associated with one building. Adjacent to the floor layers were two pits, both of which had multiple sherds of handmade pottery and one pit also contained a burnishing stone for metalworking. Further trenches in the upper terrace

identified a metalled surface towards the W part of the promontory and revetment material on the S side of the stack. The revetment material appears to have been put in place to level the sloping edge of the stack and may have supported a rampart.

In the lower terrace multiple floor layers and two hearths were identified. The floor layers abutted natural rock outcrops and one hearth lay on top of the other indicating successive phases of a structure on the lower terrace.

No postholes were identified suggesting the walls of the structure were made of turf or non-earthfast timbers.

Archive: University of Aberdeen

Funder: Univeristy of Aberdeen

Gordon Noble and Cathy MacIver – University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES)