Excavation

Date 7 November 2016 - 11 November 2016

Event ID 1038506

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1038506

NJ 6018 2742 (NJ62NW 21) As part of the Northern Picts project surveys and excavations have been undertaken on a number of enclosed settlements in Moray and Aberdeenshire to help construct regional datasets on the dating of fortified settlement.

A five-day evaluation, 7–11 November 2016, targeted a series of palisaded enclosures at Hill of Christ’s Kirk. The site consists of three circuits of a palisaded enclosure with the interior enclosure measuring c21m in diameter and the outer c55m. The inner enclosure is offset from the outer two suggesting it could have been later in date.

Scheduled monument consent was obtained to open four trenches – one in the interior and three across the three lines of palisade. The 5 x 5m interior trench located a possible floor layer of a building and a small pit or posthole. Trench 2 over the inner palisade identified a shallow palisade slot

c0.4m wide and 0.3m deep. Trench 3 over the middle palisade identified a palisade foundation cut c0.6m wide by 0.5m deep. Large stone packing was evident in the fill. Trench 4 over the exterior palisade again found a palisade cut 0.3m wide and c0.4 m deep. Radiocarbon dates suggests the outer palisade is the earliest dating to the Early Iron Age. Determinations

from the two inner palisade slots were broadly contemporary with the inner floor layer and dated to around 400 cal BC.

Archive: University of Aberdeen

Funder: University of Aberdeen

Gordon Noble and Oskar Sveinbjarnarson – University of Aberdeen

(Source: DES, Volume 18)