Laser Scanning

Date May 2018 - June 2018

Event ID 1106435

Category Recording

Type Laser Scanning

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1106435

NJ 1742 7062 Excavation and a programme of terrestrial laser scanning were undertaken in May – June 2018 as part of the Covesea Caves Project (following earlier laser scanning in 2014; DES 2014: 135). Two trenches were excavated towards the rear of the cave, targeting areas that appeared to have been disturbed by earlier, unrecorded excavations. Finds thought to derive from these earlier excavations, including animal bone, flint, and human remains, are held in Elgin Museum.

Trench 1, measuring 4m N/S by 1m E/W, was placed on the edge of an approximately circular area of disturbance flanked by the remains of earlier spoil heaps. As well as revealing clear evidence for the location of the former excavation trench, the undisturbed deposits in the N half of the trench provided evidence for a significant episode of human activity. These were represented by a group of anthropogenic deposits bounded to the S by successive linear features comprising a posthole and robbed-out stone alignment. This activity seems to have included a burning event that may have resulted in the collapse of the structure associated with these features. The date of this activity is currently unknown, pending AMS dating of animal bones from the stratified deposits.

Trench 2, measuring 2m N/S by 2m E/W, was placed around an irregular depression that appeared to relate to the earlier excavations. Excavation revealed that the old excavation had disturbed a complex suite of archaeological features. Lying above what appears to be a natural beach deposit, an initial sequence of charcoal-rich deposits interleaved with largely sterile, stained sands, represents an initial phase of human activity sealed by a layer of decayed sandstone. Above this deposit, a second episode of human activity is associated with a hearth and numerous stakeholes. Two bone pins were found in association with these deposits. These in turn are succeeded by a stone alignment which appears to represent the W part of a stone-footed structure lying to the E of the trench. The artefactual material is undiagnostic and dating of this activity awaits AMS results from animal bones associated with the stratified deposits.

Although very few artefacts were recovered from the trenches, sieving of the spoil heaps from the old excavations yielded a small amount of artefactual material including objects of bone, ceramics and coarse stone, as well as a quantity of burnt and vitrified material, including crucible fragments and pieces of furnace lining.

Archive: University of Leicester and University of Bradford (currently) and NRHE (intended)

Funder: HES and Aberdeenshire Council

Ian Armit and Lindsey Büster – University of Leicester and University of Edinburgh

(Source: DES Volume 19)