Excavation

Date 20 May 2012 - 15 June 2012

Event ID 992784

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/992784

NX 5889 5601 As part of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, the society launched a programme of excavation and survey of Trusty's Hill Fort, 20 May – 15 June 2012, in order to recover for modern analysis, the environmental and dating evidence not recovered during the only previous excavation of Trusty's Hill, undertaken by Charles Thomas in 1960. The purpose of the project was to enhance understanding of the context of the inscribed stone at Trusty’s Hill and the significance of this archaeological site within the context of early medieval Scotland.

The fieldwork consisted of a topographic survey by RCAHMS to establish a modern plan and 3D model of the entirety of Trusty’s Hill. The re-excavation of previous excavation trenches and a limited sample excavation was then undertaken by 65 volunteers in collaboration with GUARD Archaeology Ltd, in order to recover and record environmental and artefactual evidence from secure archaeological contexts. A detailed laser scan survey of the Pictish inscribed stone was then undertaken by the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation LLP.

The topographic survey updated the measured sketch plan produced by Thomas and shows that the site consists of a fortified citadel around the summit of a craggy hill, with a number of lesser enclosures looping out from the summit along the lower lying terraces and crags of the hill. It therefore recognisably conforms to the definition of a nucleated fort.

Four of Thomas's seven trenches were re-excavated. Trench 2 revealed a deep rock-cut basin on one side of the entrance to the hillfort, opposite the Pictish Inscribed Stone. This feature contained waterlogged deposits from which wood and other organic material were recovered for archaeobotanical analysis. Trench 4, on the E side of the interior summit of the site, encountered part of the vitrified rampart and associated 'dark soil' occupation deposits across an area of the interior. Excavation of these deposits recovered numerous animal bones, charcoal, worked stones and lithics, metalwork, metalworking debris and a rim sherd of 6th/7th AD century E Ware. Trench 5 on the W side of the interior summit of Trusty's Hill, also encountered part of the vitrified rampart along with associated occupation deposits also containing numerous animal bones, charcoal, worked stone and lithics, metalwork, metalworking debris, an Iron Age glass bead fragment and a rim sherd of 1st/2nd-century AD Samian Ware. Trench 6 revealed the sterile fill of the rock-cut ditch on the N side of the site. Radiocarbon dates taken from a variety of contexts across Trenches 2, 4 and 5 appear to demonstrate residual Iron Age occupation of the hill at c400 BC followed by a hiatus before the site was re-occupied perhaps starting in the 5th century AD, and flourishing in the 6th century AD before occupation of this hillfort ceased before the middle of the 7th century AD. The rock-cut basin opposite the Pictish Carvings, however, appeared to have continued in use beyond the late 7th to late 8th century AD.

The laser scan survey of the Pictish inscribed stone demonstrated that there is no ogham along the southern edge of the inscribed stone, nor is there a cup-mark above the 'sea-beast', apparent on a previous laser scan survey. The 2012 laser scan also confirmed that the z-rod and double disc symbol do not interweave as depicted previously, but intercut each other across the lower bar of the double disc. Furthermore, the horned head at the bottom of the inscribed stone clearly cuts one of the inscribed signatures, demonstrating that the horned head is not ancient, but rather another element of the 19th-century graffiti only too evident across the rest of the inscribed stone.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funders: Heritage Lottery Fund, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, RCAHMS, GUARD Archaeology Ltd, Mouswald Trust, Hunter Archaeological Trust, Strathmartine Trust Sandeman Award, Gatehouse Development Initiative and the John Younger Trust

Ronan Toolis, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society

Christopher Bowles,

2012