Galloway Picts

The best of the artefacts from the Galloway Picts excavation of Trusty’s Hill will be among some of the finds on display at the GUARD Archaeology Open Day this Saturday (15 September, 11am-1pm). All welcome to come along: www.guard-archaeology.co.uk/OpenDayNews

Chris and I gave our first presentation of the results (so far) of the Galloway Picts Project, at the DGNHAS 150th Anniversary Conference in Dumfries at the weekend. Over a hundred people attended this conference, which covered a wide range of topics, including the early history of this antiquarian society, recent research into Iron Age and Roman sites in Dumfries and Galloway, the discovery of the Triops cancriformis at Caerlaverock Nature Reserve and the contemporary cultural context of the founding of the society in 1862. These were all extremely interesting talks and we hope our own presentation matched these in showing what an interesting part of Scotland Dumfries and Galloway is.

Some of the results we were able to divulge at the conference, for the first time, were the radiocarbon dates taken from eight separate pieces of charcoal and one single fragment of wood from a variety of contexts (or layers) from Trusty’s Hill. We now have a calibrated radiocarbon date of 536-646 AD from the occupation soil in Trench 4 that abutted the vitrified rampart along the east side of the summit of the fort, which is matched by a date of 533-643 AD from occupation soil in Trench 5 that abutted the rampart on the western side of the fort summit. Calibrated dates from a construction layer (of material swept up and laid across the rock-cut foundation trench) of the rampart include 529-623 AD from the east side and 513-378 BC from the west side. Another Iron Age date of 515-381 BC was recovered from the base of a structural post-hole within the rampart at the west side though a lens of material from the core of the rampart above this yielded a date of 536-646 AD. The earliest stratigraphic occupation deposit in the corner of Trench 4 provided a radiocarbon date of 411-543 AD, while the backfill soil from Charles Thomas’ excavation of Trench 4 yielded a date of 551-646 AD. Meanwhile a piece of wood taken from the base fill of the rock-cut basin at the opposite side of the entranceway to the Pictish carvings was radiocarbon dated to 661-773 AD.

Just received Ewan Campbell’s assessment of pottery, crucible and mould fragments from our excavation of Trusty’s Hill. Two sherds of pottery were recovered in all. Both were imported to Britain. One of the pot sherds was first thought to be African Red Slip Ware when it was found on the dig, but it is in fact a rim of a Roman samian vessel of Gaulish manufacture and dated to the late 1st or 2nd second century AD. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the occupation of the site dates to this time as the samian pot sherd has been rubbed down on one edge, a common practice on native sites, and sometimes associated with metalworking often at periods later than the Roman period, which is interesting. The other pot sherd is the rim of a small E ware jar, imported from western France in the late 6th or 7th centuries AD, and used to import luxuries such as spices, exotic foods and dyestuffs. The E ware has sooting deposits surviving under the rim on the exterior which we are going to try and sample for radiocarbon dating (of the vessel independently of the context). Sixth/seventh century dates have been obtained from similar deposits on the E ware from Loch Glashan Crannog in Argyll and are the only direct dates from this type of pottery. E ware is associated with high status, often royal, sites in Atlantic Britain such as Dunadd, Dumbarton Rock and Whithorn. As Ewan notes, coastal fortified sites such as Trusty’s Hill often acted as importation centres for E ware and other luxury goods, which were then distributed to client sites in the region.

There was also a variety of evidence for fine metalworking recovered during the excavation, including crucibles, heating trays, a mould, furnace lining, and a possible crucible stand. In addition there is evidence of iron working in the form of hearth bottoms. The crucibles show a wide range of sizes, but all appear to be of unlidded types similar to those from the Mote of Mark. One has thick red enamel deposits which may have resulted from glass melting, though could be from copper. Other deposits may indicate silver working. All these need XRF analysis to determine the metals being processed. The presence of gold and silver in metalworking is characteristic of royal sites in the Atlantic West. This material needs further analysis as it is key to understanding the status of the site, and the activities of the inhabitants. Two of the mould fragments seem to be from radiating groups of pins similar to those from Mote of Mark, Dunadd and the Brough of Birsay. The range of evidence from only a few small excavation areas suggests to Ewan that this is an important metalworking site with access to significant resources and craftworkers.

Ewan also looked at the copper alloy and iron roundel with a central setting and concentric decoration with possible interlace on the outer border. It has some similarities to material being produced at the Mote of Mark under Anglo-Saxon influence. The iron socketed tool we found is a slotted and pointed object characteristic of early medieval sites and probably associated with leather working. The spindle whorl is made of quartzite and a glass bead recovered during the post-excavation wet sieving and sorting of soil samples may be Iron Age as post-Roman opaque yellow beads are more globular.

So it seems, upon this initial assessment of finds, that we have good evidence for 6th or 7th century AD occupation but perhaps some evidence of earlier Iron Age occupation. However, the radiocarbon dates we hope to get later this summer from charcoal recovered from the various archaeological contexts (layers) of the site, will hopefully enable us to better understand the date of the contexts for all of these artefacts. We might then know if some of the earlier artefacts were brought to site (as heirlooms for instance) rather than deriving from Iron Age occupation of the site itself. The story of Trusty’s Hill just gets more interesting as we go on.

Following the wet sieving of soil samples taken during the excavation at Trusty’s Hill, Beth and Scott have been busy this week sorting through the ‘retent’ material – the various grades of soil and stones left behind – picking out every fragment of bone, charcoal and even some more artefacts! Now that the collection of artefacts and ecofacts is finished, the assessment and analysis of artefact types by the various specialists can begin.

22nd June

Wet sieving of the soil samples collected during the excavation at Trusty’s Hill is now underway at GUARD Archaeology’s base in Glasgow. This is being done to extract every minute fragment of charcoal, charred seeds and other ecofacts from selected soil samples, in order to allow an Archaeobotanist to choose the best charcoal fragments (sufficiently large pieces from short-lived tree species like hazel, willow and alder) for radiocarbon dating, and to assess the assemblage as a whole to better understand what plant resources the inhabitants of Trusty’s Hill used, such as the types of wood they used, the cereal crops they ate and any other plants they may have used, such as for dyeing cloth for instance.

12th June