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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 745184

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/745184

NT17NE 91 1899 7697

The building of the 17th-century Cramond village would appear to have involved a considerable amount of levelling just above the 15m late-glacial raised beach, with the result that disturbed cobbling associated with the old village street directly overlay a large assemblage of mesolithic flints. Microliths, a microburin, and micro blade platform-cores have been identified. The only possible Roman feature noted was a small post hole cut into this deposit. A large pit lay in this area and had been filled with Roman and late medieval rubbish. A post-medieval gunflint was found, suggesting the possibility of contemporary knapping of imported chalk-flint nodules.

N of this a horseshoe-shaped stone bank containing fire-reddened stones, 3m in width with a 0.80m central area, may be a kiln or oven. No dating evidence for this has been found so far. A spread of charcoal-rich soil and ash, containing 18th-century material, overlay it, and was in turn covered by remnants of gravel and mortar surfaces. Set into the uppermost surface was a domed stone, possibly an anvil, its tip showing signs of chipping. Around it were scraps of slag, iron and lead. A steep-sided clay-bottomed trench cut all but the uppermost of these layers, this may have been a water supply to the adjacent 19th-century kennels.

Sponsors: City of Edinburgh District Council, Archaeology Service; Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society.

V E Dean 1993.

This area is partially developed. It has clearly a high potential for prehistoric, Roman and later finds and the existence of a Roman fort at Cramond is well known. The area is back from the coastal edge and so is not strictly within the scope of this study. Yet it clearly has great potential and should be closely monitored.

Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 26th February 1996.

People and Organisations

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