Archaeology Notes

Event ID 797083

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/797083

NT27SE 4333 centred on 2638 7391

NT 264 739 (centre) The excavation of trial pits monitoring environmental contamination within a property on the S side of Calton Road uncovered a human skeleton. The discovery prompted an investigation during January 1997. The skeleton was identified as the remains of a woman aged 22-23 buried in a coffin. Map research showed that the skeleton was most likely interred during the use of the site as part of the graveyard around the Canongate Kirk between 1688 and 1775.

An archaeological field evaluation was subsequently carried out in June 1997 to determine the extent of the burial ground and identify any related structures. Four trial trenches were excavated, two on either side of Calton Road. No further human burials were encountered.

Two parallel N-S aligned walls, constructed from mortar-bonded angular igneous rocks, were discovered within one of the trenches on the S side of the road. These were identified as part of the 18th-century Canongate Poor House later converted to an epidemic hospital. The foundations of both walls cut through a series of organic and midden-rich soils, probably dating to the medieval period. The soils, which were 0.5m deep, contained a distinct episode of cultivation in the form of four parallel furrows. The furrows were infilled with a red-brown clay. Over these deposits was a further deposit of dark humic and midden-rich loam. This upper deposit contained no artefacts post-dating the mid-18th century and may have been graveyard soil.

The two trenches located within the open ground on the N side of Calton Road identified the remains of substantial

stone-built foundations, cellars and drains. These can be linked with the upstanding walls which survive as boundary walls to the site. These structures were constructed after c 1750.

Sponsor: B G plc (Property Division).

D Reed 1999