Further work on the crannogs of Galloway - Web Diary
Day 1, Monday 24th August 2009
We're up and running on our 2009 excavation at the Cults Loch promontory! Today was a set up day with the JCB arriving in the morning to strip the topsoil and stones from trench 5, giving us some time to get organised on site. We have already started to find timbers though, with several piles and large oak logs starting to protrude through the peat. Charlie, one of the local volunteers, began to clean up around some parallel horizontal timbers near where planking was recorded in trenches 1 and 2. Looking forward to pressing on tomorrow.
Day 2, Tuesday 25th August 2009
Another bright, sunny and DRY day. Our team now includes Fiona and Rob, both archaeological students and we were joined today by several local volunteers, Jane, Vivian and Pat. By the end of the day we had cleaned nearly 2/3 of the trench and features were beginning to emerge. What is most surprising is that the palisade, which we had expected to trace across the northern half of the trench was limited to handful of stakes in the northwestern corner. This suggests that the arc of the palisade projects further north and that we have uncovered more of the interior than expected. Within the interior there are discrete areas of gravelly sand smeared with burnt material and much of the southern half of the trench is covered by the compact organic layer that we encountered last year and interpreted as an occupation layer. We've also had a good haul of artefacts today; chunks of flint, some of it burnt, and a selection of coarse stone tools.
Day 3, Wednesday 26th August 2009
The good weather that we’ve enjoyed over the last two days finally came to an end, meaning that after a night of heavy rain the main site was rendered unworkable today due to standing water. This gave us the chance to investigate a grass mound to the north west of the main site. This feature lies within the area of wetland, rising to a height of approximately 2m. After the coring last year this was interpreted as a natural feature, however given the spread and density of archaeological features recorded in the area it was felt that it was highly likely that this feature, if not archaeological in itself, would have been utilised and that signs of occupation would be present.
A 9m² trench was excavated on the very top of the mound and also a 1m x 8m trench which extended to the south. During the excavation a single possible archaeological feature was found in the area on the top of the mound. This was interpreted as a possible pit feature. At the moment we’re unsure if this is a single isolated feature or one of a number of features indicating occupation of the site. It Is hoped that we will find time in this field season to expand the area where this feature was found to determine if further features are present.
Day 4, Thursday 27th August 2009
Today with an improvement in the weather it was possible to return to trench 5. The day began with draining the water that had collected on the site the previous day. The North East quadrant of the trench was extended down wards with the help of local volunteers Charlie, Vivien and Pat and students Rob and Fiona and increasingly well preserved timbers were gradually exposed which appear to be lying in a criss-cross fashion beneath a layer of highly compressed vegetable matter . Some of the surfaces of the timbers also appear to be burnt. While excavating Graeme discovered a very interesting timber with a large square cut out of one end - this is a mortised joint . Rob later discovered a timber with a similar joint in which the stake was still in situ as well as a small flint blade – a first for the trench! Fiona found a small piece of burnt bone that may be possible to identify. Unfortunately later in the day the weather turned against us with heavy rain forcing us to pack up and leave the site a little earlier than usual – only 15 minutes though!
Day 5, Friday 28th August 2009
We're off to an excellent first week with a large amount of nicely worked timbers that would have made Robert Munro nod in approval! Rich layers of compact organic deposits exist in substantial quantity along the east section of the trench which contain an abundance of plant material including hazelnut shells in fresh condition. We spent a large part of the day cleaning off the exposed timbers, while clearing back further to determine their extent. A bit of rain passed through in the afternoon but by this point we didn't flinch (too much). This weekend will see us explore some of the lovely coastline in the Rhins and get recharged for another revealing week investigating the Scottish Iron Age- stay tuned!
Day 6, Monday 31st August 2009
Despite some pretty challenging weather conditions we made great progress with the site today, uncovering more of the timber lattice-like structure across the trench. Lots of these timbers seem to be jointed with mortice and tenons, and it appears that we have a combination of standing superstructure and floor timbers on the site. We have started work on the west areas of the trench, which will hopefully give us a clearer idea of the shape of the structure. Small finds today included rubber stones and a possible saddle quern.
Day 7, Tuesday 1st September 2009
As a result of yesterday's deluge it took us an hour of bailing, sponging and pumping before the site was workable this morning. We had the biggest team so far on site today - 10 in all. Pauline Megson, from Historic Scotland, joined us yesterday and today local volunteers Charlie and Vivian showed up, as did Katie, an archaeology student who lives in Whithorn.
The weather stayed generally dry and bright for most of the day (apart from the occasional heavy downpour and thunder just as we were leaving the site!) and so we made good progress. By the end of the day we had uncovered nearly 2/3 of the site down to the level of the major structural timbers. We are beginning to think that we may have the collapsed remains of the superstructure, although at the moment, the nature of that superstructure is unclear. We have large horizontal timbers mortised around stakes which have collapsed backwards taking the mortised timbers with them. Pauline uncovered an in situ stake, the upper 1.5 m of which was lying on the surface of the crannog. There is no clear plan to the stakes at the moment.
The surfaces of some of these large timbers have been charred. This burning event may be associated with the extensive layer of charcoal that we have uncovered over on the western edge of the site - this consists of large chunks of carbonised wood and is up to 10 cm thick. There are also plenty of horizontal timbers scattered across the site - the difficulty is going to be in disentangling the horizontal structure from the upright structure.
It was also a good day for finds - we found 4 pieces of flint, including the large blade and scraper in the photograph, and a fragment of saddle quern. And Vivian bought us doughnuts for afternoon tea-break!.
Day 8, Wednesday 2nd September 2009
Today we started by bailing out the site, although it wasn’t half as bad as yesterday. Then we spent the rest of the day digging down between the timbers, and clearing the areas around them for a better view. This made for some awkward digging positions and had there been any visitors they may have mistaken us for a yoga class! The team was joined by Pat who is one of our local volunteers. Finds included a hammer stone and more structural timbers. Four sections of the trench have now been cleared down to the first main layer of horizontal timbers, but what we are looking at is a bit unclear at the moment. Further excavation and observation will reveal more. 
Day 9, Thursday 3rd September 2009
Despite a flooded trench this morning we managed to make great progress- we have been excavating around the timbers of what appears to be the superstructure of the crannog. There is so much timber on the site that interpreting the layout of the building is proving tricky: hopefully the next week will help us disentangle the evidence. We had a very nice find today too- a blue/white glass bead found by Pat in the south area of the trench, an area that may be close to the centre of the site.
Day 10, Friday 4th September 2009
Another bright, dry but very windy day. Local volunteers Pat and Anne joined us for the day. We are now working mainly in the southern area of the trench where we have been uncovering some very interesting features. Pauline has been working around a very large oak log which was exposed early in the excavation – it has a small square mortise hole at one end which does not appear to have a structural function and may have been used to manoeuvre the log onto the crannog and into position. The log defines the edge of an area in which a group of small logs lying in parallel to each other lie over a group of what look like planks. These in turn lie over a mound of yellow-grey gravel. We think that the planks may represent flooring over the gravel which may have been laid down to form a firm, dry foundation.
Just to the north of these timber features Graeme started uncovering a deposit of compressed layers of vegetation which included distinguishable holly leaves and fern fronds – this looks very like a flooring deposit – it is very compacted as though it has been frequently walked over. And at the very end of the day, he found an enigmatic object, carefully fashioned from wood, just under this deposit. The jury is out on what this object might be………
Open Day, Saturday 5th September 2009
Day 11, Monday 7th September 2009
One of the sunniest days so far – some of us needed sunscreen! Tessa Poller has joined us for the week, and Jane and Anne worked with us until lunchtime. After pumping and bailing out the site work began on removing the horizontal timbers in Areas 5a & b. So far this is revealing more horizontal timbers in no particular pattern with a plethora of stakes, some upright and some collapsed backwards. We are now working well below the water table and drainage is becoming a real problem – more drain digging and clearing towards the end of the day.
The group of parallel-aligned logs in Area 5c were planned and removed and then we cleaned down onto the group of planks. However, instead of continuing underneath the logs as we had anticipated the planks end – they have clearly decayed at both ends presumably because they are lying in and under sandy gravels rather than the organic layers found almost everywhere else on site. The logs and planks are lying within a square arrangement formed by two logs.
Only find today was a hammer stone. And lots of discussion as to what this enigmatic site might be!
Day 12, Tuesday 8th September 2009
Today was an exciting day with lots of visitors. Jennifer, who arrived yesterday, showed three groups of local school children around. They showed lots of interest in the site, and in what archaeologists do, and they asked plenty intelligent questions too. The younger children (aged 6 and 7) could see many advantages to living and working, beside a loch, (most of which had not been immediately apparent to Jennifer on her first day of field work in many years! We removed the mysterious 'ard' object successfully in one piece, and cleaned it of some of the sticky mud, but its function remains a mystery.
Quite a lot of heavy showers, but it stayed clear for the site visitors and the worst weather happened at lunch time when we could shelter from it.
Day 13, Wednesday 9th September 2009
A gloriously sunny dry day, difficult to believe it was the same site we were excavating in the rain yesterday! Alan has been coring across the site, establishing that the loch bed is roughly 1.5 m below the loch bed, and well below the water table in the surrounding loch! Tessa is finding lots of very large logs at this level, and we have also found quite a few stakes with forked upper ends, the tips of which are still in situ. They are occurring frequently enough to think that they must have been a significant element of the superstructure on the site.
We did lots of recording today, Stacey, Katie and Jennifer all drawing sections. Anne has been sampling timbers across the site. We began dismantling the square timber framework which lies over one of the larger gravel/sand mounds – some of the timbers are re-used and have been chopped to size to fit within the framework. We are beginning to thick that the yellow sand which overlies this framework and which contains thick lens of ash and charcoal may have been the basis of a hearth.
Much discussion about the nature of the wooden object lifted yesterday – suggestions have been a mock arrowhead, fish symbol, thunderbolt…….
Day 14, Thursday 10th September
Today was another day of glorious sunshine - quite the contrast to Tuesday's downpours. Two primary school visits resulted in more interesting (and rather entertaining) question and answer sessions for Jennifer as the ages ranged from 5 - 12 years old. All seemed intrigued and were curious as to what an archaeologist's day involves.
Most of Thursday was spent recording and sampling as the excavations are drawing to a close. Section drawings and trench plans galore! Volunteer Pat found a wet stone which seemed to be used for scraping as opposed to hammering, as well as a few pieces of flint in the southern end of the trench. Several samples were taken of the Oak stakes and large timbers for dating (some of which required Alan's chainsaw skills!).
Lunch time was spent basking in the sun and munching on doughnuts - a much deserved break from the mystery of Cults loch excavations!
Day 15, Friday 11th September
Our last day was again dry and warm. The morning was spent finishing the recording, sampling timbers and taking soil samples from the sections. Digging continued to the last minute in Area C where Pat was tasked with finding the boundaries of the compacted plant floor covering while Tessa defined the relationship between the central gravel mound and the floor covering. We now think that this area was probably the focus of activity on the site – a possible ring of stakes encompassing the floor began emerging – but a better understanding of this area will have to wait until next year’s season.
The digger showed up at midday and everything went into overdrive to get all our equipment and samples off the site so that the excavation could be backfilled in the afternoon - hot, sweaty work but everyone mucked in.
We would like to thank all the students and local volunteers who worked on the excavation - most but not all are shown here listening to Graeme’s explanation of the site. We have made significant progress in understanding the site this year and it would not have been possible without your contribution.
And here are some final words from Pat Martin, one of our Volunteers....
"It was with sadness that I left after the closure of the most recent Cults Loch excavation on Friday 11th September. I had worked as a voluntary helper at various times throughout the term of this exciting dig.
I often thought about the “hands that do dishes” advert as I trowelled in the peat, mud and gravel on each of the days that I was in attendance. My nails certainly took on a new dark look!
Graeme Cavers and his team worked non stop in all weathers to excavate the site, record their findings and use the discoveries made to build up a picture of the day to day lives of the people who had occupied such a lovely spot in the Wigtownshire countryside.
My most exciting moment arrived when I noticed a small, vivid blue object shining through the contrasting dark trowelled earth and realised that I had found a glass bead. It really was a most beautiful object and my sympathy went out to the person who had lost it so many years before.
This was my first dig and I was impressed by the patience and professional approach of all members of the team at all levels. There were always inclusive and interesting discussions relating to finds and to other aspects of the site.
It was a motivating experience for me and for other members of the community to have taken part in a valuable exploration into the lives of a people who had populated our local area. It was equally rewarding to see that local schools also took advantage of site visits to support their classroom learning in a meaningful way."
Pat Martin
