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Excavation

Date 2009 - 18 October 2012

Event ID 992979

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/992979

NH 517 421 A scatter of Roman and medieval silver coins was discovered by Eric Soane during metal detecting in 2009. A magnetometry survey of the area was undertaken in November 2010 by Tessa Poller of Glasgow University, but proved unproductive due to modern metal debris in the soil. An excavation undertaken 11–18 October 2012 by NMS has recovered the remainder of the coins and provided some context for them. The coins represent two separate hoards, separated by 1200 years but buried a few metres from one another. A medieval hoard of twenty 14th-century coins, and a hoard of 36 Roman denarii, the latest coins of mid-2nd-century date. Both had been disturbed by later activity and scattered by cultivation. A field wall and traces of an abutting sub-rectangular structure, as yet undated, were found in the area of the Roman coins, and what may be a vestigial cobbled surface near the medieval ones. Evaluation trenching on slightly higher ground just S of the hoards revealed a cobbled surface with a spread of cultural material over it, including later prehistoric pottery and iron working slag. This suggests the Roman hoard is connected to an Iron Age settlement site.

Funder: Inverness Field Club and National Museums Scotland

Fraser Hunter, National Museums Scotland

2012

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