Site Diary: Trench 1

Another week has passed and the archaeology in trench one is becoming increasingly complex. Various features relating to the structure or structures that stood within the circular bank are now beginning to emerge. These take the form of hollows and scoops filled with darker soil, stone and artefacts such as pottery, shale ring fragments and stone tools. At least three different pottery fabrics have been recognised, together with a variety of vessel forms, the majority of which continue to support the idea of a later Bronze or Iron Age date for much of the activities in the area.

Worked flint and chert continues to be recovered from across the site, and two days ago, we found a large stone mattock or hoe blade made on a large quartzite river cobble. Tools such as these may have been used in breaking the earth during hand cultivation and perhaps in a range of related tasks. A narrow and shallow linear depression on the southern edge of the trench may well be a product of prehistoric spade cultivation.

Another important development has been the recovery of a limited amount of metalworking debris from the northern end of the trench. Associated with a concentration of burnt stone and a spread of charcoal rich soil, this debris appears to be a by-product of copper or bronze working, although this will need to be checked through more detailed analysis.

Work on the bank and cairns has begun to clarify a variety of characteristics. To begin with, it now seems probable that the roughly circular stone bank butts onto the two cairns and thus post dates them. There is also a measure of formality in the structure of these cairns. For example, the cairn to the northern end of the trench now looks like a clearance pile built on top of a series of small stone built compartments. Whilst these are not cists in the formal sense of the term, high concentrations of pottery in these features suggests that they may have been a focus for funerary or other forms of purposive deposition.

Stones are now being lifted and we hope that the pattern and character of these features will become clearer in the near future. The south-western corner of the trench has also revealed evidence for the quarrying of gritstone from the outcrop on which the site(s) are located. Spreads of pottery, burnt stone, shale ring fragments and stone tools suggest that this area may have also served as a focus for a midden.

Given the complexity of the deposits in this trench, we have decided to extend our field season by a further two weeks. With such a wealth of evidence coming to light, it is better to continue than to backfill and return next year, by which time we will have lost much of our 'feel' for what is going on in the trench.