Traprain Law Environs Project

Date November 2002 - July 2003

Event ID 1097431

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1097431

Traprain Law Environs Project

The Traprain Law Environs Project is investigating the settlement and economy of the landscape around Traprain Law during the 1st millennia BC and AD. Since 2000, geophysical surveys have been conducted on 30 neighbouring cropmark sites, which have been followed up by a series of evaluation trenches and open-area excavations.

(NT 566 733) Standingstone. Enclosure situated on the end of a low ridge which extends SW from Traprain Law and overlooks lowland to the N, S and W. A geomagnetic survey of the site revealed a single oval ditch forming a partial enclosure, with a 30m break in the circuit to the NW. Excavation took place over the entirety of the enclosure, and confirmed this break in the circuit. The ditch was cut through the bedrock, and had been recut at one stage. Contemporary with the ditch were two phases of a palisade running around the interior of the ditch, which may have demarcated the interior edge of the bank. Inside the enclosure, three features with sunken cobbled surfaces were excavated (proto-souterrains), two of which were partially surrounded by curving wall gullies. A series of post-holes cut across these at a later date, perhaps blocking off the gap in the enclosure circuit.

In an extension to the excavation to the E, the remains of two Bronze Age cremation vessels were recovered, their contents partially scattered by plough damage. These are likely to have been associated with a series of features across the site which pre-date the enclosure, including several fire-pits packed with charcoal and a number of post-holes. A shallow straight ditch, detected by the geomagnetic survey - perhaps an earlier field boundary - was also shown to pre-date the enclosure.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsors: HS, British Academy, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

P Carne, D Hale and C Haselgrove 2003