Excavation

Date 6 August 2007 - 26 August 2007

Event ID 558638

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/558638

NO 0510 1750 Two linked research objectives are focused in the immediate vicinity of Forteviot village. The first is to locate the Pictish royal settlement and ‘palace’ which documentary sources show existed in the 9th century, and the second is to gain some idea of the development of the village throughout the medieval

period. As a preliminary step, a number of test pits were dug around the village in the 2007 season (6–26 August). The test pits, all so far in gardens on the N side of the village, produced medieval pottery, including Scottish White Gritty Ware of 12th to 13th-century date, as well as oxidised and reduced green-glazed wares of later medieval date. However, all this material came from buried medieval ploughsoil, indicating that the core of the medieval village lies closer to the present street line and to the S.

Study of the parish church and graveyard showed the building had a longer structural history than had been realised. Stumps of two chancel walls and a possible buttress projecting from the E wall show that the rebuilding of the church in 1778 incorporated parts of an earlier building, which may have been medieval.

Areas of the village were also targeted for geophysical survey, including parts of the manse garden, the village green and the school grounds. The survey identified possible structures, a possible ditch and traces of the previous village on the village green, and included features well away from the core of modern Forteviot.

www.gla.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/serf

Archive currently deposited with the Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow.

Funder: British Academy, Historic Scotland, Department of Archaeology University of Glasgow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.