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Excavation
Date June 2019
Event ID 1122287
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1122287
NN 67244 39175 This work formed part of the second season of the At the Water’s Edge: Early Iron Age Settlement Patterns, Loch Tay, Central Scotland project. This research project seeks to test the distribution of Early Iron Age settlement evidence around Loch Tay through geophysical survey and excavation.
Easter Croftintygan ring ditch houses (Canmore ID: 173707) are located c.400m NW of Easter Croftintygan Farm at 230m OD. Work in June 2019 opened a 3 x 3m trench over the internal area of the better preserved of the two houses recorded. A 1 x 6m extension off of the main trench extended across the ditch and bank of the site. This evaluative excavation aimed to characterise the surviving deposits and sample material for radiocarbon dating. The trench was excavated by hand, drawn, photographed photogrammetrically recorded and surveyed by RTK-GPS. All negative features were sampled.
In the main 3 x 3m trench area, seven postholes were identified along with two spreads of charcoal filling shallow cuts. The larger of the two spreads, 1.2m diameter at its greatest extent, has been interpreted as a hearth feature. The hearth feature cut also contained a heavily degraded stone setting, and sat in almost the exact centre of the ring-ditch.
The 1 x 6m extension laid out over the ditch revealed it has a maximum depth of 0.5m from the central area of the house. The ditch was filled with abundant charcoal. A slight and shallow secondary cut was apparent in the ditch nearer the central area of the house. In the centre of this shallow secondary cut of the ditch, a putative stake hole was identified. The encircling bank was found to have a near vertical section abutting the ditch cut. The bank itself was composed of up cast natural material that was overlain by an orange sediment up to 0.1m thick, tentatively interpreted as burnt turves. Palaeoenvironmental analysis and radiocarbon dating of samples is ongoing.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: Royal Archaeological Institute
Michael J Stratigos ̶ Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
(Source: DES Vol 20)
