SERF blog: 20/04/2014

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Last Days and the End of Castle Law Excavations 2014

Castle Law excavations 2014 is now over. The final days were very busy and therefore the blog went silent, but here is a picture recap of the last days of the dig and the ultimate destruction of the backfilling team.

I would like to thank everyone that helped on site - it was extreme archaeology that only could be done be an extreme team! Thank you all! I would also like to thank the Dupplin Estate and Michael Blanche of Culteuchar farm for letting us carry out our crazy dig. - TP

Sondage through stone 'capping' of bank and leveled area over burnt deposits of earlier bank in Trench F

Alan recording sondage in Trench F

Odd hearth stone on slope in Trench F

Rough cobble surface of hut platform in Trench F

Effie Photos-Jones came along and zapped the area of soil vitrification in Trench E for chemical composition analyses

Neil's sondage through the vitrified bank material on to a layer of black ash and charcoal

Section of vitrified bank on the vestiges of an earlier bank

A rock cut ditch was discovered filled with large boulders at the base of the bank (who knew??)

More sampling for post-excavation analyses

The wall of the inner enclosure through the rubble in Trench G

Look at that rubble and collapse... very sexy!!

Veronika, Alistair and Ian very happy to reach bedrock through the rubble and clay!!

Dream Team's hole through the core of the wall (check out the drips and stains of vitrification in the top right of the section - magic!!!)

Another fantastic picture of the Dream Team (others had to be censored!!!)

Finished returfing Trench G on the last day - look at the beautiful sunshine!

An amazing but exhausted team at the end of backfilling!!! - Thank you all

2015 SERF Field School

The Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project field school for archaeology students will takes place 20 June - 10 July 2015 in and around the village of Dunning in Perthshire.

We will be posting updates of the excavations here and you are welcome to follow along and make comments. To find out more background information about SERF please visit our webpage.

Follow us on Twitter: SERFProject

We would like to thank local landowners and farmers for their support of our project.

Events in the Local Community
As part of the current phase of the SERF project which is based around Dunning, we will be continuing our community archaeology programme. This is intended to involve participation of local community through a range of activities including a Big Dig, a programme of schools outreach and public lectures.

Previous Seasons

2013 Season
In 2013 we excavated a prehistoric enclosure at Baldinnies, St Serfs church in Dunning, an Iron Age site at Kay Craig.

2012 Season
In 2012 we began the second half of the SERF project, or the first half of our acronym, moving out from Royal Forteviot into the Strathearn Environs! Work now shifted to the Dunning area, focusing on the prehistoric cropmarks at Leadketty Farm. A few trenches were opened around the medieval church of St Serf's in Dunning, which revealed a fragment of a Pictish cross amongst other things. Work also continued on Castle Craig Broch, turning up important evidence for the use and re-use of Roman material culture on an Iron Age settlement site.

2011 Season
In 2011 excavation began on new sites across Strathearn. A new hillfort with three visible ramparts was excavated at Ben Effrey while just down the hill a possible hillfort at Castle Craig turned out to be a broch! The topographic survey of this site shows the ramparts of an earlier enclosure on the site. Digging at Haly Hill in Forteviot uncovered the remains of a post-medieval structure and roadway and produced a lot of interesting finds.

2010 Season
In 2010 further excavations of the Forteviot monument complex were undertaken. We excavated trenches over a henge monument with a large central pit and a double ditched enclosure with a central 'triple cist'. Meanwhile the palisaded enclosure was revisited which enabled us to further record the nature of the postholes outwith the avenue. Also, in the same field, another Pictich square barrow was excavated.

2009 Season
In 2009 we continued our investigations of a Neolithic henge which has been extensively reworked in later prehistory/Early Medieval period. We also dug at a Pictish cemetery - focusing on a large enigmatic square enclosure.

Exploration of the wider context of the complex archaeology of Forteviot will continued with walkover and topographic surveys and a small excavation of a nearby river terrace fort.

2008 Season
In 2008 we opened a trench over a Neolithic henge monument within the large palisaded enclosure. Trenches at the Dunknock hillfort were also opened and aimed to ascertain the location of the rampart and ditch system.

Meanwhile the wider context of Strathearn was explored with standing building survey at Muckersie, topographic survey at various sites including Exmagirdle, Forteviot Churchyard and Muckersie Chapel and a geophysical survey at Blackford near the Pictish symbol stone. Walkover survey took place on the high ground above Forteviot aiming to record cultivation remains, enclosure boundaries and past routeways.

2007 Season

The first season of excavation at Forteviot focussed on the avenue of a large Neolithic palisaded enclosure. This site is full of interesting monuments and features such as a large henge monument within the enclosure.

Elsewhere a large trench was opened at Jackschairs hillfort to investigate the rampart and ditch system. In conjunction with this a topographic survey of the hillfort was performed, with the aim of recording the extent of the ramparts remaining under thick vegetation.

Walkover survey took place at the Black Hill of Kippen, geophysics was taking place in and around Forteviot and a standing building survey was done of Exmagirdle Chapel.

Over several weeks after the fieldschool a Pictish square barrow with several graves was also excavated by a group of keen students.

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Tuesday 22 April 2014

Last Days and the End of Castle Law Excavations 2014

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