Archaeology Notes

Date 1993

Event ID 1105257

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1105257

NO 162 405. The Cleaven Dyke is a complex earthwork comprising a pair of parallel ditches (c.45m to 51m apart), with a central bank, running NW to SE for 1,820m through woodland. A further 350m or so is visible as a cropmark at the SE end. The central bank, which is between 1m and 2m high and about 9m broad, appears to consist of conjoined dumps and the ditch, where visible as a cropmark, appears to be made up of linked segments. At certain points (for example the NW terminal) it rises and broadens. There are at least two, and possibly a maximum of five, deliberately constructed breaks in the bank. In the NW portion (from the NW terminal to the main Perth-Blairgowrie road which cuts the monument) the Dyke is relatively straight and consistent in form. To the SE its line is far less constant. At a number of points either the central bank, for example the c.200m long section from the NW terminal to a major discontinuity in the bank, resembles a long barrow.

Small-scale excavation was undertaken at three points on the Cleaven Dyke. At the SE end narrow trenches were dug to look for the end of the Dyke, or at least the point beyond which the ditches did not survive. This was successful.

Also within the cropmark section (NO13NE 89) a larger area, measuring 9m by 30m was excavated over the southern ditch. Two lengths of the ditch were excavated in plan. It was revealed as very broad, shallow and irregular.

Some 1300m to the NW a 3m-wide section was cut through the central bank at a point where it had already been damaged by quarrying. The excavation was taken down to and then through the old land surface and B-horizon. Pits located within and beneath the old land surface were excavated. Briefly, the bank sections revealed an off-axis (to the NE) primary dump made up of (?) turf and mixed material, probably the fill of the northern ditch. Over this dump on the SW side was a layer possibly of turf (either turf dump or an old land surface). Over this layer further sands and gravels, probably the fill of the southern ditch. At both sides of the bank was a small primary dump of (?) turf apparently toeing the gravel of the bank. F005 appeared as a shallow hollow within the old land surface, cut by the section. It contained large pieces of charcoal which may have been burned in situ.

The section through the bank was continued as a 1m-wide trench across the berm to an across the N ditch, which was revealed to be c.5m wide and 1m deep below the modern topsoil surface.

The Cleaven Dyke closely resembles the structure at Scorton in Yorkshire, which has been identified as a cursus monument. It is suggested that both monuments combine the features of the monument type termed 'bank barrow' and the features of a cursus monument. A 'typical' bank barrow would have its quarry ditches immediately beside the mound, not about 19m away. The c.47m-broad, 2100m long enclosure formed by the ditches is typical of a cursus monument. Both types of monument are thought to belong to the first half of the third millenium BC.

Sponsors: Society of Antiquaries of London, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Prehistoric Society

G J Barclay and G S Maxwell 1993