The origins of the settlements at Kelso and Peebles, Scottish Borders (original) (raw)
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Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports
This is a report on archaeological work in two of Scotland's less well-known medieval burghs of Kelso and Peebles. The excavations at Wester Kelso/Floors Castle established that the original medieval burgh of Kelso or Wester Kelso was much further west than previously believed, being situated well inside the present Castle policies. That early settlement at Wester Kelso appears to have been abandoned in the 14th or 15th centuries, at the same time that the royal burgh of Roxburgh was deserted, probably as a result of the English occupation of Roxburgh Castle. The other settlement of Easter Kelso, near the abbey, survived and expanded northwards from the abbey along Roxburgh Street. The finding of a possible building terrace in Phase 1 at 13-19 Roxburgh Street indicates that settlement along the southern end of that street could date to as early as the 13th or 14th centuries. Combining the archaeological, cartographic and documentary evidence, it seems clear that 'Easter'...
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2021
Although the Neolithic period is defined by farming, physical evidence for processes associated with farming are rare, with agricultural practices usually indicated by environmental and biomolecular proxies for domesticates such as pollen evidence, ceramic residues and lipids, animal bones, plant remains and stable isotope studies. This paper will, we hope, invigorate discussion on the recognition, interpretation and significance of physical traces of farming in Scotland. The starting point will be the summary of two excavations, Wellhill and Cranberry, both Perth and Kinross, in 2014 and 2016 respectively, part of the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project. These cropmark sites revealed evidence for possible Neolithic farming in the form of possible ard marks and field ditches. There follows a synthesis of physical evidence for Neolithic farming in Scotland, drawing together evidence for ard marks, field boundaries, cultivation ridges, cultivated middens, and soils. Recommendations are made for recognising and interpreting such features on excavations, and the potential benefits of giving a higher profile to the act of farming in our narratives about Neolithic lifeways in Scotland and beyond are briefly explored.
Science in Scottish Archaeology: ScARF Panel Report
2012
Science in Scottish Archaeology iv these questions data of sufficient richness is required that is accessible, both within Scotland and internationally. The RCAHMS' database Canmore provides a model for digital dissemination that should be built on. Integration: Archaeological science should be involved early in the process of archaeological investigation and as a matter of routine. Resultant data needs to be securely stored, made accessible and the research results widely disseminated. Sources of advice and its communication must be developed and promoted to support work in the commercial, academic, research, governmental and 3 rd sectors. Knowledge exchange and transfer: knowledge, data and skills need to be routinely transferred and embedded across the archaeological sector. This will enable the archaeological science community to better work together, establishing routes of communication and improving infrastructure. Improvements should be made to communication between different groups including peers, press and the wider public. Mechanisms exist to enable the wider community to engage with, and to feed into, the development of the archaeological and scientific database and to engage with current debates. Projects involving the wider community in data generation should be encouraged and opportunities for public engagement should be pursued through, for example, National Science Week and Scottish Archaeology Month. Networks and forums: A network of specialists should be promoted to aid collaboration, provide access to the best advice, and raise awareness of current work. This would be complemented by creating a series inter-disciplinary working groups, to discuss and articulate archaeological science issues. An online service to match people (i.e. specialist or student) to material (whether e.g. environmental sample, artefactual assemblage, or skeletal assemblage) is also recommended. An annual meeting should also be held at which researchers would be able to promote current and future work, and draw attention to materials available for analysis, and to specialists/students looking to work on particular assemblages or projects. Such meetings could be rolled into a suitable public outreach event. Science in Scottish Archaeology 1 1. Chronology 1.1 14 C measurements on 15 carbonized residues from 11 different archaeological contexts. The measurements are in agreement with the model assumption that they belong to a single phase of activity. This activity dates the introduction of Shelly Ware in Perth to cal AD 930-1020 (95% probability; start Shellyware: Perth, Scotland) [cal AD 960-1000 (68% probability)]. Shelly Ware fell out of use in Perth in cal AD 1020-1120 (95% probability; end Shellyware: Perth, Scotland) [cal AD 1030-1070 (68% probability)]. (N.B. These results vary very slightly from those analysed using OxCal 3.10 and reported in Hall et al. (2007)). 1.3 Cosmogenic nuclide and Ar/Ar dating techniques and facilities in Scotland 1
A Later Prehistoric Settlement and Metalworking Site at Seafield West, near Inverness, Highland
Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports
Construction in 1996 at a major retail development site close to Inverness, Highland resulted in the destruction of two known cropmark sites. One set of cropmarks was found to be associated with a Bronze Age log-boat burial site and the results of the ensuing excavation are published elsewhere (Cressey & Sheridan 2003). The excavation of a second area of cropmarks forms the subject of this publication. The archaeological remains consisted of a series of negative features, post-holes and annular ditches which form parts of at least nine separate structures of a later prehistoric unenclosed settlement. A mould fragment indicated Late Bronze Age sword production in the vicinity. A palisaded enclosure produced a copper-alloy brooch that is a rare find for the region. Evidence of copper-alloy objects and metalworking from a smelting hearth and slags show that the occupants were of some status. Some of the structural and artefactual evidence compellingly points to an in situ ironworking w...
Glasgow Archaeological Journal, 1986
This is an attractively presented compendium of closelylinked archaeological, sedimentological, geological, botanical and zoological studies by Paul Mellars and thirteen other experts, examining the landscape background of the earliest hunter-gatherers on the island. Oronsay has been an important Scottish archaeological site since the first discoveries and excavations there by Symington Grieve in the 1880s. Since that time, five main shell midden sites have been identified: Caisteal nan Gillean I and II, Cnoc Sligeach, Priory Midden and Cnoc Coig. After the initial work of Grieve, the next major exploration was that of Mungo Buchanan and A Henderson Bishop, culminating in Bishop's excavations on Cnoc Sligeach in 1913. The history and relevance of these earlier campaigns are recorded here in some detail, making good use of existing publications, but expanding existing knowledge and contributing some fascinating insights into earlier antiquarian ideas and methods by the use of hitherto unpublished manuscripts, plans, correspondence and photographs from the archives of the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow. Various contributions include studies of the geographical setting and environment of Oronsay, the Mesolithic coastal setting, the past and present vegetation of Oronsay and Colonsay, sedimentological analyses and land snail assemblages from the shell-midden sites, and an examination of storm frequencies along the Mesolithic coastline. The main part of the publication is a report on the major excavations at Cnoc Coig, Caisteal nan Gillean II and Priory Midden, and the smaller excavations at Caisteal nan Gillean I and Cnoc Sligeach, between 1970 and 1979, outlining research goals, recording and sampling procedures. There is detailed description of the stratigraphy and chronology of the midden deposits, and the evidence for various structural features associated with the Mesolithic occupations. Twenty-one radiocarbon dates on charcoal and mammal bone from the five shell-midden sites range from 4240+80 to 3200±380 BC and four dates on marine shells fall within the same range, the millennium of'Mesolithic/ Neolithic transition' in northern Britain. Mammalian remains include red deer, pig, grey and common seal, cetacean (possible porpoise/dolphin and whale), otter, pine marten and weasel, used as food, clothing and in the manufacture of tools, tents, boats and containers. Despite this range of species the minimum numbers represented suggest that their exploitation played a minor role in the overall subsistence strategy on the island. In particular, two different types of red deer remains, of a very small and a larger size of animal which probably inhabited different ecological regions, and the fact that they could not have been hunted on Oronsay itself, suggest that some of the animal resources were brought from a distance-Colonsay, Jura or even the Scottish mainland. Among the more intriguing discoveries are the fragments of human skeletal remains, 55 in total (49 from Cnoc Coig, 5 from Caisteal nan Gillean II and 1 from Priory Midden) and all apparently associated with the Mesolithic occupation of the sites. This is the largest single collection of loose human bones recovered from any European Mesolithic site, apart from the teeth from Hoedic. Most interesting is the emphasis on hand and foot bones, 61% of the remains from Cnoc Coig and 83% of the remains from Priory Midden and Caisteal nan Gillean If together. The contributors of this study (C Meiklejohn & B Denston) offer the suggestion '.. .
Beyond provenance and dating: ceramic technology in late prehistoric Scotland
A class of ceramic relatively well represented in museum collections, certainly in Scotland but also elsewhere, has been labelled as 'craggan' or 'crogan' pottery, generally with a Hebridean provenance. Though intensively collected in the late-nineteenth century, it received little attention beyond the comparisons it offered for prehistoric material in archaeology. A concomitant of this collecting interest was so-called 'Barvas Ware', a type of imitation ceramic 'discovered' in the crofting township of Barvas on the west side of the island of Lewis. When this Craggan pottery and Barvas Ware were included in an exhibition on Scottish Pottery in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1983, the opportunity was taken to fill out a sparse record. With sources hitherto unexplored, questions of production, dating, function and aesthetic were addressed through research ranging from science-based methods to fieldwork.