Excavation

Date 22 June 2016 - 7 July 2016

Event ID 1024727

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1024727

NJ 1090 6914 (NJ16NW 1) 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.

During a two-week season at Burghead, 22 June – 7 July 2016, a 10 x10m trench was opened over an area which had revealed floor deposits and a large animal bone midden in 2015. The trenches aimed to further evaluate the survival of intact deposits within the upper citadel of the fort, which was seriously compromised by the construction of the 19th-century

town of Burghead.

The trench revealed a large extent of a highly fragmented floor surface of a rectangular building c4m wide. The full length of the building was not identified as it went into the baulk on the NW side of the trench, but it extended for at least 4m NW/SE. Radiocarbon dating suggests the floor layer is 9th/10th century AD in date and the large animal bone midden found in 2015 appears to be contemporary. The animal bone midden was found on the N side of the building represented by the fragmentary floor layer.

The 9th/10th-century floor layer is underlain and adjacent to a series of postholes. One posthole underlying the floor layer in 2015 was dated to the 6th century AD. A whole series of additional postholes appears to relate to multiple phases – some appear to be associated with the floor layer while others appear to form part of a ring ditch roundhouse structure.

Only radiocarbon dating and post-excavation analysis will help tease out the patterns and plans of these postholes. Part of a post-medieval structure was also found in the SE corner of the trench.

Archive: University of Aberdeen

Funder: University of Aberdeen

Gordon Noble and Oskar Sveinbjarnarson – University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES, Volume 17)