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Excavation

Date 24 June 2017 - 2 July 2017

Event ID 1038511

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1038511

NJ 9672 4819 (Deer Abbey NJ94NE 5) The 24 June – 2 July 2017 season of research digs focused on the fields around Deer Abbey, and Rose Geophysical Consultants also carried out survey work.

Four trenches targeted possible structures in the field to the W of the Abbey. The two northern trenches were located on higher ground above South Ugie Water and both contained remains of circular structures. Structure 1 was a series of postholes with a raft of stone on top. Pottery from the raft included 12th–14th-century medieval pottery and a group of hand-made pottery sherds. Residue on one of the hand-made sherds was dated 1276–1395AD. Structure 2 included a hearth dated 1147–1250AD from charcoal. On the N side of the hearth was a shallow ditch, which contained a number of stakeholes suggesting a wattle structure or windbreak had been located to protect the hearth. It is hoped to return in 2018 and further excavate Structure 1 to get dating evidence for the earlier building. These structures may be associated with the monastery where the Book of Deer was annotated in early Gaelic around 1000AD or may

be structures associated with the abbey which was founded in 1219AD. School classes, local volunteers, students and archaeologists participated in this dig. The whole excavation was filmed by Midas Media for BBC Alba.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: The Book of Deer Project

Alison Cameron - Cameron Archaeology

(Source: DES Volume 18)

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References