Publication Account
Date 2005
Event ID 645642
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645642
Two archaeological survey projects have recently been carried out on Traprain Law. In 1999-2001, the Traprain Law Summit Project (TLSP) sought to assess the nature and extent of human activity across the area within the inner rampart; this had seen little previous investigation and was felt to be threatened by rabbits and accidental fire. In late 2003, a fire burnt out huge swathes of the hill, leading to a programme of assessment and rescue excavation which involved the excavation of over 20 trenches (most of them small) and numerous test pits; this was carried out in 2003-4. The recent work has certainly added new layers of complexity to the biography of the Law. Many of the TLSP trenches were set out explicitly to test 'blank' areas of the summit and to give some picture of the nature and density of the archaeological deposits across a site which has a long and varied past.
Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age activity on Traprain suggests its use as a ritual focus and occasional burial place. The collection of rock art that was recorded during the 1930s has been augmented by the discovery of a new panel. The discovery of further polished stone axes demonstrates that Neolithic activity of uncertain character ranged more widely across the hill than previously thought, but there remains no evidence for substantial occupation during the Neolithic or early Bronze Age.
The picture changes markedly thereafter. Late Bronze Age metalwork from Curle and Cree's excavations had already indicated intense activity around 950-700 BC. However, radiocarbon dates from cereal grains found within occupation deposits in several of the recent trenches suggest a rather greater time depth to the Bronze Age occupation. Although most relate to the activity in the 10th or 9th centuries, others more probably reflect settlement in the later 2nd millennium BC.
Dating the rampart system has been a perennial problem, but radiocarbon dates were obtained for the innermost enclosure. The surface remains of this feature are no more than discontinuous scarps and rickles of stone, and it had been discounted as a rampart by some authorities. However, excavation revealed the remains of a terraced bank with a well-built outer stone face incorporating crudely-faced stonework. Three radiocarbon dates from below the rampart suggest that there activity on this part of the site in the late 2nd or early 1st millennia BC. A further date, from material formed against the rampart, is virtually indistinguishable, suggesting that the rampart was built before 1010-790 cal BC. Taken at face value, this suggests that the summit enclosure was constructed during the Late Bronze Age, although it is clearly desirable to obtain more dates for these deposits. We also obtained LBA dates from under the inner rampart, but these provide only a terminus post quem. The fire has revealed numerous outworks on the W side of the hill, as well as a previously-recorded rampart on the S side. These features are undated, but would have made the rampart systems considerably more impressive.
In 2004, a hoard of four socketed and looped axe-heads was found buried on a ledge on top of the cliff that fringe the S side of the hill. The precipitous location of their discovery suggests a votive purpose, although the hill was still a thriving settlement. The lack of distinctive pre-Roman Iron Age material from early excavations has long been seen as problematic, but the material culture of the Scottish Iron Age is notoriously impoverished and undiagnostic, so this apparent absence need not be fatal to the traditional interpretation of Traprain as a pre-Roman tribal centre. However, the radiocarbon dates from the recent work relate exclusively from the Bronze Age, despite attempts to date grain from all viable stratified contexts. It is difficult to escape the impression that pre-Roman Iron Age occupation was far more restricted than that of earlier and later periods.
Nevertheless, there are some likely candidates for Iron Age buildings, particularly from the 2004 rescue work for which radiocarbon dates have yet to be obtained. In particular, there is an artificially enhanced terrace on the S edge of the summit, just above the cliffs that form a natural barrier on this side of the hill. A series of stone wall-footings and metalled floors were found associated with later prehistoric pottery and a stone ball of probable Iron Age date. One of these structures contained a well-built hearth and utilised a flat area of outcropping bedrock as part of its floor. On this floor, there were several rock-carvings of much earlier date, some of which would have been exposed in the floor of the later building. In a nearby trench (slightly closer to the summit), there was a metalled surface, which was apparently used as a cannel coal working area; this was also probably of later prehistoric date.
Set between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall, the location of Traprain placed it variously inside and outside the Roman Empire during the first few centuries AD, making the site pivotal to any understanding of Roman-native relations during this period. Despite some suggestions that Traprain may have been essentially a ritual centre during the Roman period, with only a very limited resident population, the recent work has tended to support the more traditional view of the site as a Roman 'boomtown'. For example, excavation of a steeply-sloping area of the inner rampart revealed that its collapsed remains were sealed by a deep accumulation of floor deposits, the uppermost associated with Samian pottery of the 2nd century AD. The use of such inconvenient, steeply sloping corners of the hill for the construction of buildings suggests that space may have been at a premium. Indeed, one of the recurrent features of the present work has been the density with which Roman Iron Age activity is distributed across the hill. On the basis of our assessment trenches, many of the artificially enhanced, slab-fronted terraces on the slopes below the summit seem likely to date to this period.
The recent work has also added to our understanding of the last defensive work on the site, the late Roman Iron Age 'Cruden Wall'. Where the recent fire had exposed stonework on the E side of the hill, we were able to excavate a carefully-built stretch of terraced road or path which both facilitated and controlled access to one of the gates on the 'Cruden Wall', making the entrance a dramatic one.
New information has also emerged regarding the medieval re-use of the hill. Gerhard Bersu's excavations in the 1940's had hinted at a 13th or 14th century AD for a rectangular enclosure around the highest point on the summit. The recent work bears this out, but has also what appears to be a child's long cist burial within the enclosure, suggesting the presence of an early medieval burial-ground. Rectangular foundations discernible below the modern hiker's cairn on the summit itself may even represent the remains of an accompanying chapel. A substantial stone-footed turf-built building on the S edge of the summit area has also been dated to the 13th or 14th century, and could represent an ancillary building dating to an ecclesiastical focus on the hilltop. One possible context for these concerns a set of traditions relating Traprain Law to the life of St Kentigern, patron saint of Glasgow. Traprain lay close to the well-trodden pilgrimage routes of eastern Scotland, and the popularity of St Kentigern during the 13th and 14th centuries may have sparked renewed interest in the site.
[Illustrations include plan of Traprain Law showing main areas of excavation and locations of recent discoveries of rock art and axes, also colour photograph of the axe hoard].
Sponsors (both projects): Historic Scotland, National Museums of Scotland.
Additional sponsors (TLSP): Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Russell Trust, Society of Antiquaries of London, University of Edinburgh Munro Lectureship Trust.
I Armit, A Dunwell, F Hunter and E Nelis 2005.
