Excavation

Date 22 June 2015 - 3 July 2015

Event ID 1025990

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1025990

NO 01960 15640 A small trench was opened. 22 June – 3 July 2015, within the Late Neolithic Leadketty palisaded enclosure (NO01NW 40), to examine an area of the interior of this massive enclosure and test the nature of cropmarks identified here. The trench was located towards the S extent of the enclosure on the edge of an escarpment. Previous SERF excavations within this palisaded enclosure, about 100m to the NE, identified a Grooved Ware building, mini-henge and various pits and slots (DES 2012, 149-150). Excavations in 2015 revealed a dense scatter of cut features which included postholes and pits. Amidst this scatter, a timber circle c7.5m in diameter was identified, defined by eight to ten small postholes (which typically measured 0.5-0.95m in diameter and 0.3m to 0.55m in depth). One of these postholes contained a single sherd of fine prehistoric pottery. Aside from one large posthole set asymmetrically within the circle (1.05m in depth and over 1.4m in diameter) the remainder of features we investigated were shallow, and included a number of small intercutting pits. No material culture was recovered from these although we did find considerable quantities or charcoal in some pits which are now undergoing post-excavation analysis. It is likely that these multiple features represent repeat episodes of pit digging and deposition of organics such as carbonised remains and burnt nutshells, which would be consistent with occupation in a large Neolithic enclosure. The timber circle could have been a small roofed building, or a free-standing ceremonial monument, while at some point a huge single post stood here. Cutting the timber circle and large posthole were the remnants of some kind of post-medieval subterranean structure. A rectangular slot measuring c2m across by at least 2m in length (the true extent being unknown as it lies beyond the trench) was shored up on at least one side by loose stonework and mortar suggesting a slight foundation wall. The debris within this cut feature included multiple roofing slates, mortar, and charcoal flecked silt loams. This may represent the location of a small hut or shed although nothing is marked in this location on 19th-century maps.

Archive and report: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Website: www.glasgow.ac.uk/serf

Kenneth Brophy and Helen Green – University of Glasgow

(Source: DES, Volume 16)