Excavation

Date 30 April 1994 - 31 May 1994

Event ID 633517

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/633517

NT 348 721. Excavation of a trench 360 sq m was carried out in advance of the proposed construction of a house at Eskgrove vathin the scheduled area of the civilian settlement and field systems to the E of Inveresk fort, under the provisions of a scheduled monument consent. The trench was located c 70m E of the excavations reported above.

A number of archaeological features cut into the subsoil were recorded. Context numbers in brackets refer to those on the plan in DES 1994. Three lengths of segmented ditch were located by the excavation running from E to W diagonally across the trench for a distance of c 24m. Only a short section, c 4.0m long, 1.2m wide and 0.7m deep, of the western ditch (027) was available for examination, before it ran beyond the southern limit of the trench. All of the central ditch section (024, 042) was revealed. It measured 13.Om long, 1.3m-2.Om wide and 0.7m-0.8m deep. The upper fill of this ditch contained sherds of both medieval and possibly Roman pottery. At its eastern end this middle ditch truncated a narrow slot (043, 044), the northern end of which contained a rim sherd of a Roman mortarium vessel, The eastern ditch segment (053) measured c 8.0m long, 1.2m wide and 0.5m-0.6m deep. It continued eastwards beyond the limit of the excavation. Sixteen pits were also located, the majority of which were concentrated in the western end of the excavated area. One pit (035) contained sherds of Roman Samian and Grey Ware along with some large stones, one of which was dressed. Another pit (037) contained a number of sherds of later prehistoric pottery. A report detailing the results of this project will be lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Mr & Mrs J Jordan.

CFA 1994 aa.