Excavation

Date August 2019 - September 2019

Event ID 1162845

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1162845

NH 5490 4885 A barrow cemetery in a field at Tarradale had previously been identified from aerial photographs. With at least 28 identifiable barrows (both round and square) it is the second- largest barrow cemetery in Scotland, although almost certainly it was more extensive as areas of the cemetery have either been ploughed out or are too deeply buried to show on aerial photographs.

In August and September 2019 Tarradale Through Time undertook a major excavation at the barrow cemetery which showed it had been constructed on a monumental scale even though little was apparent at ground level (Canmore ID: 12683; DES Volume 20, 13–133). This report provides radiocarbon dates from these excavations.

In order to sample the different shapes and sizes of barrows seen on the aerial photographs, three large trenches were opened – an area of almost half an acre with 2000 tonnes of spoil removed. Trench 1 on the highest part of the site revealed four large barrows with ditches cut into very stony soil. Although there was some indication of cuts made for graves in the middle of the barrows, no human remains survived, either because the bones had completely rotted in the acidic soils or the burial was destroyed when the barrow was levelled by ploughing. The basal fill of the ditch of one of these round barrows (F1.04) give a radiocarbon date of cal AD 126–236 (at 95% confidence), while the fill of one of the grave cuts gave radiocarbon dates of cal AD 253–410 and cal AD 247–409 (both at 95% confidence), suggesting that this burial may date from the end of the Iron Age or the very early Pictish period. An unenclosed grave cut (i.e. not within a barrow) was excavated in trench 1 (F1.08 on the plan), and although no bony remains were found, a layer of charcoal at the bottom of the grave cut gave a Pictish period date of cal AD 431–560 (at 95% confidence).

Trench 3 revealed that a round barrow 7m in diameter with a central grave cut lay a short distance from a larger round barrow 17m in diameter with another large barrow beyond. Two neatly laid out square barrows, c8m wide and with causewayed corners, were accompanied by a larger square (or more correctly diamond- shaped) barrow 13m across without causewayed corners. Sections across the barrow ditches revealed them to be 1–2m wide and fairly shallow. There were many pits and areas of burning within and outside the barrows while two large pits with much evidence of burning were clearly earlier as they had been cut through by the ditch of the large round barrow.

Centrally placed graves in normal-sized Pictish barrows

have been excavated elsewhere, so Tarradale Through Time concentrated on two non-central graves, the first being an unenclosed grave (F3.07) lying between two square barrows. No human remains were found in this grave but the outline of a log coffin was discernible as a dark stain in the soil. The second grave (F3.08) lay in an eccentric position towards the side of the large diamond-shaped barrow. This grave was deeper and it revealed the dark shadowy outline of a skeleton right at the bottom of the cut. No bony structures were discovered and the dark stain was purely a chemical deposit from the complete deterioration of the skeleton, but, remarkably, the outline of each bone was clearly delineated. The skull appeared to have survived a little better and it was lifted as a solid block in the hope that there may have been teeth within the sandy matrix filling the cranium. On analysis, there was no bony structure surviving but the interior fill of the skull provided a radiocarbon date of cal AD 542–583 at 68% confidence and AD 438–601 at 95% confidence, confirming expectations that this part of the barrow cemetery was Pictish.

In summary, the excavation of the Tarradale barrow cemetery

revealed an amazing panorama of barrows of different sizes and shapes including some of the largest of their type in Scotland. The oldest barrows may date from the Bronze Age, creating a focus for round barrows constructed in the late Iron Age and early Pictish period on the highest part of the barrow cemetery, in turn succeeded by round and square Pictish barrows, some of monumental proportions, in the lowest part of the cemetery.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: National Lottery Heritage Fund; Historic Environment Scotland; NOSAS and private donors

Eric Grant – North of Scotland Archaeological Society

(Source: DES Volume 23)