Underwater Archaeology

Date 2 July 2018 - 12 July 2018

Event ID 1089004

Category Recording

Type Underwater Archaeology

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1089004

NN 72072 44294 A programme of work was undertaken, 2–12

July 2018, as part of the Living on Water investigation of Early

Iron Age (EIA) crannog-dwellers in Loch Tay. The project

is excavating a range of crannogs with known EIA phases

to collect structural timber samples for dendrochronology

and wiggle-match 14C dating. A survey was undertaken of

the Fearnan Hotel Crannog in 1979 and a single 14C sample

returned a date calibrating to the EIA.

Three trenches were opened on the crannog. Two on top

of the crannog mound and one at the base of the crannog

where it met natural loch sediments. The trenches were

drawn by hand, photogrammetrically recorded and surveyed

by RTK-GPS.

Trench 1 (2 x 2m) located on top of the crannog was

abandoned after the removal of the first 0.6m of stones

from the rubble capping of the crannog, as very large

stones below impeded progress. At this level a small patch

of organic debris was found. This contained a wood chip,

clearly the offcut of an axe/adze cut, a hazel nut shell, and

two ovicaprid teeth.

Trench 2 (2 x 2m) was also located on the top of the

crannog mound. The initial stratigraphy matched that of

Trench 1; however, no exceptionally large stones halted

progress. Various contexts of angular boulders and stones,

1.2m deep from the top of the trench edge, were found

over a context of small diameter (

and bracken. Twenty timber samples were taken from this

context, the largest of which had a diameter of c0.1m. The

exceptionally deep inorganic profile is unusual for crannogs

in Loch Tay, but might be paralleled by Milton Morenish

Crannog, where in 2017 a trench in the top of the crannog

revealed a deep (c0.5m) inorganic stratigraphic sequence,

but there large horizontal timbers were found within the

otherwise inorganic contexts.

Trench 3 (3 x 1.5m) was located on the N side of the

crannog, nearest to the shore, where the crannog mound met

the natural loch sediments. These natural sediments, which

were uniformly sand, contained seven horizontal timbers.

One of the seven had clear evidence of mortise holes, although

only part of timber was exposed in excavation. There were

no organic deposits encountered around these timbers.

A further three horizontal timbers, including a further

mortised timber, were found emerging from the natural loch

sediments around the base of the crannog mound outside of

Trench 3, these were not sampled.

Timber sampling was carried out by sawing the top off

vertical timbers, and slices requiring two cuts were used on

horizontal timbers where necessary. These samples will be

subject to dendrochronological analysis and wiggle-match

14C dating over the course of the project.

Archive: ADS and NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Michael J Stratigos – Scottish Universities Environmental

Research Centre (SUERC)

(Source: DES, Volume 19)