Archaeology Notes

Event ID 829994

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/829994

NS97NE 21.01 9511 7968

NS 950 796 Trenching was carried out in a field on the east bank of the River Avon, Inveravon, near Grangemouth due to future road construction. Here, Sir George Macdonald (1934) suggested, there may once have stood a small fort, guarding the crossing of the Rover Avon. In 1967, the stone base of the Antonine Wall was traced from the hedge bordering the eastern edge of the field for 480ft westwards. About 480ft from the eastern border of the field and about 300ft from the river bank, there was the discovery of a stone foundation, 2ft wide. It was running N and S and made a T-junction with another stone foundation, also 2ft wide, running E and W. The N-S foundation was traced for 32ft N from the T-junction, and was found to have a break in it for a doorway at 13 to 17 and half feet N of the T-junction. At 32ft N of the T-junction the foundation turned westwards. N of this turn, or corner, there came a cobbled street almost 15ft wide, and N of that the Antonine Wall base. The Wall base was 14ft wide, with very massive kerb-stones. There were several layers of turf still standing above the base.

The stone foundation running eastwards and westwards from the T-junction only survived by a few feet. There was also a short stretch of N-S foundation 25ft to the W of the T-junction which might indicate the line of the W wall of the structure. If indeed this was the W wall, the structure measured externally 38ft from N to S, and had a room or section which measured almost 30ft overall with an exit into another section to the E. No other foundations were encountered, but cobbling at two levels was exposed.

Finds from the cobbling, from small stones and soil over foundations, and from tumbled stones over the street S of the Antonine Wall base included quern fragments, scraps of bronze, iron, glass and fragments of Roman course pottery.

A S Robertson 1969

A small fort was built (see NS97NE 21.00), using the Antonine Wall (NS97NE 21.00/RRX 505) as its N rampart and the Military Way as its via principalis. It measures slightly less than 35m from N to S between ramparts, though no indication of its E-W dimension was attained due to the narrowness of the excavation trench. This dimension is substantially greater than those of the excavated fortlets known on the Antonine Wall, but markedly less than that of the smallest previously known fort on the frontier, at Duntocher. The presence of the River Avon presents a severe constraint on the N-S extent of the fort, and it is possible that the E-W dimension has been increased to compensate for this. No external southern ditches were found, this requirement probably being met by the River Avon. Defensive pits appear to have been added to the berm with the construction of the installation.

The evidence of a type 18/31-31 Samian dish with the stamp of Asiaticus, which was sealed beneath the fort deposits to the S of the via principalis, strongly suggests that the construction of the installation can be dated to 155 AD - 160 AD (information from Brenda Dickinson).

The mortaria assemblage from deposits associated with the buildings also indicates that occupation was not before AD 160 (information from Kay Hartley). The ceramic and stratigraphic evidence combine to demonstrate that the installation at Inveravon was not a primary element of the frontier system.

The excavated area showed two clear phases of occupation within the fort, though the limited nature of excavation did not allow specific identification of the buildings. The second phase is marked by a change in alignment of the southern buildings, accompanied by a narrowing of the via principalis, which appears to have been relieved by the construction of a further road situated immediately outside the southern rampart of the fort. There is no evidence of any abandonment between the two occupations are, however, apparent. The fort was subsequently demolished and levelled. (Fig 5)

These two phases of occupation were preceded by the poorly preserved remains of a possible iron smelting furnace adjacent to the southern rampart, although no stratigraphic relationship survived between the two. An Antonine date for the furnace was confirmed by its pottery assemblage.

CFA 1992; S S Frere 1992.

Site recorded during a desk-based assessment and field survey of a proposed pipeline route running from the proposed Mossmorran Offtake Station to the proposed End Terminal at BP Grangemouth.

NS 9510 7970 Roman fortlet (NS97NE 21.01).

Two detailed reports will be lodged with the NMRS.

Sponsor: Penspen Ltd.

C McGill 1998.

Scheduled with length of Antonine Wall (NS97NW 46.00 and NS97NE 21.00) and middens (NS97NE 18) as 'Antonine Wall, fort and shell middens 240m WSW of The Tower, Inveravon... a stretch of the Antonine Wall and a Roman fort surviving as buried remains ... [with]... a large cluster of mesolithic shell middens.'

[Location map supplied].

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 25 June 2010.