Newsletter – Issue 141, January 2003

Pitt Rivers Award 2002

Following on the Stop Press announcement in the last Newsletter that we had been chosen to be one of the four finalists, members will be aware from our Annual Report that the Society was in fact the winner of the Pitt Rivers Award 2002 for the publication Fast Castle Excavations 1971-1986, by Keith L Mitchell, K Robin Murdoch and John Ward. At the British Archaeological Awards Presentation Ceremony at Liverpool Town Hall on 7th November last, in the presence of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Sir Neil Cossons of English Heritage presented the award (an inscribed stoneware plate, certificate and cheque) to Keith Mitchell and Hugh Dinwoodie on behalf of the Society. Denis Smith also attended in support. The publication was described in the citation as ‘academically valuable’ and in the literature handed out as ‘an excavation report of which the Society can be rightly proud. It will be a lasting contribution to Scottish archaeology.’

Fieldwalking

On Saturday, 15th February the Society will be fieldwalking the area surrounding the Iron/Bronze Age fort/settlement of Blackchester, 2 miles NNW of Lauder (map reference NT508504 and Feachem’s Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, p113 of 1992 reprint).

The Penicuik Project

Arrangements are progressing (hopefully) for a start in February/March for a survey within Castle Hill Plantation at Penicuik. The Royal Commission has no record of this site so nothing is known about its use or date. It is possible that it was the site of a motte and bailey and, if so, it could date from the early 13th century. The naturally defensible position and a ditch cut across the only possible approach certainly suggest something of this early date. After a topographic survey we will probably do some ground resistance measurement before some test pit excavations.

Ground Resistance Measurement at Pittencrieff

Since the issue of the last Newsletter we have hopefully completed the survey in Pittencrieff Park. Our efforts on 29th October were aborted due to rain all day but 3rd December was fine, and four 20 by 20 metre squares were surveyed. It had rained quite heavily on the previous day and part of the area surveyed, adjacent to some interesting high resistance patches recorded previously, was somewhat soggy but resistance contrasts were still clear even in the waterlogged areas.
Squares to the north and south of the previously surveyed area give some east-west high resistances that complete a rough rectangular high resistance shape albeit with ‘bumps’ at the north and south ends. This is the nearest we have to matching the parch marks shown in the original aerial photographs.

Newhailes Water Garden

A century ago the estate of Newhailes had a magnificent water garden with streams and glades intermixing with plants, trees and small bridges. Since then a drop in the water table due to mine workings has drained the ponds. There has also been a long period of neglect and the site has become covered in undergrowth and trees.
Abigail Daly, the local National Trust archaeologist, is currently working to define the more permanent structures of the gardens in order to give a more clear idea of their original appearance. The next stage, funds permitting, will be to attempt a limited reconstruction of the site.

Lithics from Dalmeny

On looking back through previous Newsletters I find that Dalmeny fieldwalking and lithics appear first in Issue 116 precisely five years ago. It seems a long time, but possibly not that great in comparison with the 10,000 years since the lithics, and the comparable ones from Cramond, were struck. The lithics, hammer stones and quartz are all currently in for study in far greater detail than they have been in the past five years.
A joint project has been proposed between EAFS and the Edinburgh University Archaeology Department that will involve survey, more fieldwalking and test pitting – but not until after the present crop of winter wheat has been harvested.

Cramond Geophysical Survey

We have permission from Historic Scotland, because the Scheduled Monument area around Cramond is quite large, and from the City of Edinburgh Council as the landowners, to survey four areas around Cramond. The first two of these, within and just to the north of the walled garden, were first surveyed in September last year. The results, when printed out, show many features that align with Victorian garden paths shown on the 1893 map, but nothing that looks Roman. Was there nothing Roman to find or is anything Roman deeper than the 0.5 to 0.75 metres that the survey recorded?
With the cooperation of Dr Bruce Hobbs of the Department of Geology and Geophysics of Edinburgh University two resistance linear array measurements were made in December, which clarified the situation.
A transect across the walled garden showed only geological features down to a depth of 3.5 metres so in this area there appears to be nothing other than the Victorian paths – maybe the Roman vicus buildings were all wooden and are undetectable. Between the garden and the church hall again nothing was visible until the line was extended to the northwest and the fort ditches appeared – apparently dug to a depth of at least 4 metres.

Newsletter – Issue 140, September 2002

STOP PRESS

Our publication, Fast Castle Excavation, has been chosen as one of the finalists for the Pitt Rivers Award 2002. The winner(s) will be announced at the Presentation Ceremony at Liverpool Town Hall on Thursday, 7th November 2002.

Cramond Post Excavation

Much headway has been made with the cataloguing of the many finds, but there still remains a con-siderable quantity to be dealt with. We will again be working at the City Archaeology Department at Broughton Market during October. Once completed, the assemblage will be assessed to ascertain which categories of finds require which kind of specialist examination and report.

Edinburgh and East Lothian Archaeological Conference

The first conference, run jointly by Edinburgh and East Lothian at the Brunton Theatre on 7th September, was a considerable success in the quality of the archaeological papers presented and the number of attendees (at least 17 of whom were EAFS members).

Recent Outings

1) Daer Reservoir
The trip to Tam Ward’s excavation on 11th August was a bit of a disaster in that the weather was appalling. Tam and his volunteers were hidden under an ingenious plastic shelter trowelling away at the foundations of a bastle house. They have made considerable progress with the building and, though it was relatively small, it had walls on the ground floor that were at least 1 metre thick. The cobbles on the floor were well preserved and a wall ran through it. This would fit in with the pattern of cattle being stalled below while the farmer and his family lived above. At the western end there was a rectangular stone extension to the building but the nature of this is still under investigation. Also of interest was a midden containing vast quantities of pottery from the Late Medieval and Post-Medieval periods. Judging from these the farmer must have had a considerable amount of wealth.
Another feature of interest was one of the ubiquitous burnt mounds. Their high prevalence there could be due to prehistoric practices in the area, or the enthusiasm, sharp sightedness and skill of Tam in spotting them. Also in the area was a cremation circle consisting of a circular ditch with stones filling the whole of the enclosure. The site of the cremation has not been identified yet.

2) East Coldoch Homestead
On 23rd August members of the Society visited an excavation near East Coldoch Farm. The director was Dr Woolliscroft from the University of Manchester. He has been instrumental in establishing the importance of Roman installations in this area as a system for defending Southeast Scotland. Currently he is investigating native settlements for evidence of any interaction with the many Roman units that were in the area.
The homestead at East Coldoch consists of a timber round house 13 metres in diameter with walls of wattle and daub. A particular feature is that the roof caught fire so that there is a lot of material on the floor for analysis. Around the house there was a turf rampart held in place by timber posts on either side of it. Underneath one side of the rampart is a circle of stones with an empty cist for a child at the centre. Also running underneath is a larger rampart suggesting an earlier settlement. At an interface between earlier and later ramparts there are some features that may be the remains of an earlier house.

Resistivity at Pittencrieff

Our endeavours to complete the survey in Pittencrieff Park have been frustrated due to choosing days on which it rained continuously – so it was at the end of August. However on 3rd September the sun shone and with our new equipment we romped through over 1400 sq. metres. Despite being away early in the week Ian produced the printout within 24 hours of receiving the data. More high resistivity lines (walls?) run north-south and disappear of the edge of the plot so it looks as though we must set up one more visit to confirm where they go.

Gilmerton Cove Excavations

We were invited to join an excavation at Gilmerton by Tim Neighbour who offered the bait that the preliminary investigation was being done with ground penetrating radar.
The cove is a network of passages and rooms cut into the carboniferous sandstone – adjacent to limestone and coal seams that have all been worked – it was reputedly made by a blacksmith, George Paterson, in 1724.
Bruce Hobbs, who else, conducted the radar survey and produced an apparent anomaly some metres along the main passageway which we excavated and found a vertical shaft filled with earth and rubble. Whether it was a well, as reputed, or just for drainage is far from clear. The intriguing thing is that there is a circular hole cut immediately above the ‘well’ now sealed with concrete – but it does indicate that the ‘well’ was cut before the passageway.

Proposed investigation at Penicuik

We have been invited to survey a possible castle-motte site to the west of Penicuik. It stands on a very defensible position at the end of a small ridge that could have had protective ditches cut across it. No record exists in RCAHMS so it will be a matter of topographic survey to plot the major humps and bumps followed by resistivity to see if this reveals anything in the bumps and then selective digs. Starting hopefully early next year.