Excavation

Date 1981

Event ID 1036152

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1036152

NT 191 769

A Roman boundary ditch was discovered in the area immediately S of Cramond Tower, running at right angles to the projected line of the E ditch of the annex (Discovery Excav Scot 1978, I5), The upper levels had been destroyed by early 19th century land clearance, and the surviving portion of the ditch was of standard V-shaped profile with a width of 1.77m and a maximum depth of 1.10m. Initial silting had been followed by a partial recut and finally by deliberate backfilling. Pottery finds suggest an Antonine origin for the ditch, with the recut and backfilling occurring at the beginning and end of the Severan occupation.

The ditch had been cut by the digging of a pit which had been filled with large stones: its date and context are unknown. To the S of the ditch was part of a roughly cobbled footpath, c.1m wide, running almost parallel to the ditch. The surface sealed pottery of 17th century type.

N. M. McQ. Holmes