Biggar Archaeology

www.biggararchaeology.org.uk

Normans Castle with burnt mound in foreground

Bucht Cleuch

Latest fieldwork news

Dig at Melbourne, 2007

The dig at Melbourne, 3 miles north of Biggar on the A702 road produced a lithic assemblage of flint and chert including cores and scrapers. The assemblage was believed to be a mixture of Mesolithic and Late Neolithic material. Excavation below the plough soil revealed several pits filled with charcoal but with no finds, rather surprising as the plough soil was full of lithic. The most amazing outcome from the lithic assemblage is that although it is mixed, a significant proportion has been identified by Alan Saville of the National Museums as being of very Early Mesolithic and directly comparable with the famous Yorkshire site of Starr Carr. Large end scrapers are dominant in the flint tools types found. Alan will be publishing this important discovery sometime this year. A post script to the story is that one of the pits was radio carbon dated and came out at c200AD, therefore the pits are unconnected with the plough soil lithics.

New heritage trail open by Easter

A further heritage trail has been devised by the Group. This one in the Daer Valley will compliment the nearby trail at Glenochar. The Wintercleuch Bastle and Prehistoric Trail will lead over an existing track-way to Bronze Age cairns and burial sites and then reach the bastle house remains with associated features. Three illustrated interpretation panels will guide visitors on the trail. Further sites in the Daer Valley will also be opened this year.

Mesolithic radio carbon dates, lipid analysis, unenclosed platform settlement excavation, 18^th C bottles.

Several interesting developments have taken place in recent months; firstly we have a further three Mesolithic radio carbon dates. These are for the two Daer sites; No’s 84 and 85 (see reports on this web). No 84 (F6 east) dated at 5390^+-35BP and No 85 (F2) came in at 4930^+-_{_}35BP. However, the real surprise came with a 7920^+-_{_}40BP date from a pit at Weston (Trench 1/F6) (forthcoming) where we excavated a series of trenches to evaluate a dense scatter of lithic including hundreds of microliths. We already have a c 6000 year old date from Weston. All of the samples were hazel (corylus) wood. These dates add to a considerable number we have now managed to have done on our pre-historic sites (more anon).

The 9000 year pit under excavation The pit is the central one in the straight line of three

Further radio carbon dates in 2008.

Radio carbon dates have now been received for Fruid Reservoir unenclosed platform settlement. These are 3100+-35BP and 3150+-35BP, the former being coppiced seven year old hazel used in the construction of the walls of one house and the latter was birch, also from a wall context in the other building. These dates make the site Mid Bronze Age and compliment the age of the palstave found in the earlier building. The work at Fruid is complete and a report is in prep, however, we would have liked to do more environmental work with the copious amounts of charcoal retrieved from features, but this is beyond our means.

Our work on a chert quarry site near the village of Broughton has given us a date of 5220+-35BP. This was hazel charcoal, found with oak and at the base of the 2m deep quarry face. Extraction had been done using stone pounders, several of which were found throughout the quarry infill. It is possible that fire cracking was done to open up the chert layers but evidence was inconclusive for this. (Report in prep).

The fourth date we got this year is for a pit which underlay and incredible lithic assemblage near Melbourne cross roads. This material is being written up by Alan Saville of the National Museums and is being hailed as one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Scotland, being directly comparable in lithic terms to Starr Carr in Yorkshire. However, it would appear that the pits we found below the plough soil were not associated with the material above, as the date came in a c200AD.

Some of the impressed and grooved ware sherds we found in our excavations at Melbourne near Biggar have been analysed by Anna J. Mukherjee of Bristol University. Organic residue was discovered to contain high levels of ruminant dairy lipid (cow milk fat), these 4500 years old sherds tell us that dairy produce was part of the farming lifestyle of the Late Neolithic settlers there. Amazingly, it is possible to distinguish between both animal body and dairy fats, and from different types of animals.

Numerous pre-historic and post medieval sites we have discovered within five different reservoirs in our area, nearly all are under direct threat of erosion, some less so but others simply being washed away. Since 1991 we have been trying our best to cope with the problem, but on a more optimistic level, numerous significant sites have been discovered as a consequence of the erosion. Some of these sites, such as Mesolithic camps, would never have been found otherwise. Hopefully much of this work will come on stream on this web site soon.

Fruid finds were sparse apart from pottery, as has been found on the few other sites which have been excavated (all reported in PSAS), nevertheless, sherds from bucket urns, hammer stones and rubbers and a few chert and flint flakes have been retrieved. The star find has been a fine bronze palstave from the drainage gully of the upper platform. The various features were rich in charcoal and these were being bulk sampled for future use. The downside to all of this is that we have no funds to deal with the important post excavation work which will eventually give a more complete picture of the settlement. At the moment all efforts are in dealing with salvaging the details of the site. This will eventually be an important addition to our knowledge of life in the Bronze Age in Upper Tweeddale. (Interim report to follow soon).

The platform under excavation and showing features emerging

General view of reservoir looking south

Example of bucket urn rim sherd

The palstave from Fruid unenclosed platform

We now have the second bottle and glass report by Robin Murdoch of Edinburgh, on the assemblage from our latest bastle house excavation. This is at Smithwood bastle in the Daer Valley where we have carried out a major project involving upland survey, reservoir and forest survey and excavation and research excavations. Two of the largest early 18^th century wine and medicine bottle collections to be excavated in Scotland have come from Smithwood and its neighbouring bastle house of Glenochar. These indicate a lifestyle previously unknown for a rural Scottish settlement of this period. Wine was being taken with copious amounts of tobacco (as the pipe bowls can testify) and food was being prepared and served on rather fine Staffordshire slipware pottery. All of this shows that life on an upland farm in the south of Scotland was not as Spartan as one may imagine.

Examples of Smithwood wine bottles. The larger bottle (left) has a capacity of 800ml, while the smaller contained 400ml. Despite irregularity in shape and size the larger bottles that could be measured had a uniform capacity.

Stop Press 2008

Another large find of similar wine bottles has been found during the current Tweed Project. Necks and bases show they date to the early 18^th century. The site is a 17^th to 19^th century settlement of Chapelgill in the remote valley of Cardon near Broughton village.

Coming soon to this web site.

Biggar Archaeology Group has been responsible for a large range of projects, many of these are still ongoing. Consequently, both interim and final reports will be published here. Other articles on issues, research topics and general matters will be added to this web site.

Reports and items will be constantly reviewed and revised as necessary and we may produce the comments of others in context with these.

The reports make no pretence of academic standard and are not peer reviewed; rather they are produced to allow public access to the data gathered in the process of the Groups activities. New discoveries will be brought into the public domain as they happen.

Reports on the following will appear:

Biggar Common East, results of excavations on Early and Late Neolithic pits and features including a large assemblage of pottery and lithics.

Camps Reservoir, results of survey and excavations of Bronze Age funerary sites and other features.

Pre – history North of Biggar Project, including surveys, results of a major field walking programme, the excavation of Mesolithic, Early and Late Neolithic, and Bronze Age sites which produced significant assemblages of pottery, lithics, features and dates. The principal sites within this project are Melbourne, Brownsbank and Weston.

The Daer Valley Project, including surveys, excavations of bastle houses, Mesolithic and other pre-historic sites and post medieval settlements.

The Bastle House Project, including surveys, unique excavations of bastle houses and their environs, results of historical research.

Bastles, Buchts and Shielings, the activities of upland pastoral farming in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in Clydesdale and Tweeddale.

Cornhill Project, a field walking project covering an entire farm and with limited trial pit excavations.

Lyne Cists Project, discovery and excavation of three Early Christian long cists.

Burnt Mound and Lead Smelting Project, the discovery of such sites in close proximity and results of dating.

Upper Tweed Survey, Broughton Heights Survey and the Manor Valley Survey, being landscape surveys in Upper Tweeddale, Peeblesshire.

Upper Tweed Research Project, this will be the latest project of excavation and research resulting from the three main survey projects (above). Included will be the Bronze Age excavations in Fruid and Megget reservoirs.

M74 Project (1990) plus the continuation of upland survey in Upper Clydesdale. Results of previous and current survey programmes.

The archaeoastronomy of Wildshaw Burn Stone Circle and Blackmount enclosed cremation cemeteries.

Other articles will deal with the linked up implications, hypothesis and outcomes of the above projects, for example:

Burnt Mounds and their context in the Clyde and Tweed valleys

Unenclosed Platform Settlements and their context in the Clyde and Tweed valleys

The patterns of recently discovered Early and Late Neolithic sites in Clydesdale.

Bronze Age burial practises in the Clyde and Tweed valleys.

The implications of modern farming and cultivation practises for archaeological sites and assemblages.

The implications of reservoir and forestry archaeology and lessons learned.

The rationale of the Biggar Museum archaeology exhibits.

Simulated Dig Event

Latest discoveries and theories.