Excavation

Date 17 August 2008 - 12 September 2008

Event ID 578333

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578333

NJ 210 585 Excavations continued at the multi-period settlement site of Birnie (see DES 2007, 131), with four trenches being opened from 17 August–12 September 2008. Work continued on the burnt down roundhouse, with some two-thirds of the house now fully excavated. The extent of the smaller underlying ring groove house is now clear. The overlying large ring ditch house had been heavily used and repaired by the time it burnt down. The ring ditch had eroded around several postholes while others had been replaced, in one case with an overlying area of stone packing, perhaps acting as a post base. A series of stone roof weights which had collapsed during the fire were recovered, as were substantial fragments of charcoal. Finds from the house included a fragment of a Type 1 glass bangle which showed evidence of repair. Soon after the fire a cobbled surface was laid over the remains. Further investigation in the area of the coin hoards confirmed that another house lay immediately to their W. This was overlain by a spread of material which included cobbled areas, burnt clay layers and a spread of substantial charred wood fragments. This suggests that an industrial area, its date as yet unclear, may lie beyond the trench edge. To the SW among an extensive range of features was a small post ring some 3.4m in diameter.

Between this trench and the burnt house another substantial ring ditch house was investigated; this was known from cropmarks but previously untouched. It was a large single phase structure, some 16m in diameter,

with a ring ditch round the northern half and a series of shallow erosion hollows in the peripheral space of the southern half. Internal features included a massive near central posthole, an internal partition preventing direct access into the ring ditch from the door, and a linear slot which appears to post-date the house. On abandonment, burnt material was dumped in the ring ditch and a series of pits were dug across the doorway. Overlying it were the remains of a sub-rectangular Pictish building, its foundations represented only by two shallow postholes. Linked to this were a cobbled area, a hearth and associated pit, dated by an Early Historic gold-and-glass bead. The fragile remains only survived through slumping into the underlying roundhouse. Finds from this trench included a painted pebble (the first from the area), a small dagger in its sheath and a small spherical glass playing piece/pin head decorated with inlaid spirals.

A final trench to the E of the burnt house confirmed that remains noted in 2001 at the southern end of trench M comprised a further roundhouse.

A metal detecting survey produced a Romano-British zoomorphic namelled brooch, several more denarii from the scattered hoard and a button-and-loop fastener.

Funder: National Museums Scotland, Historic Scotland, Ian Keillar, Moray Field Club and RAF Lossiemouth

Fraser Hunter (National Museums Scotland), 2008