#scotarchmonth

[kingseatarchaeology]

Day 3: Pipes and Pebbles Today in Trench 2 we have been working back on the soil to uncover the bedrock. While doing so we have uncovered many pebbles all circular and similar in size found very close together, and are sure we will find many more. It will be interesting to find out what these relate to, as they are different to the other stones in the trench. In the higher up segment a small piece of flint appeared, which is likely debitage (the waste flakes left over from shaping the stones into tools). A clay pipe was also found, in two pieces. We have fragments of the bowl and stem, and although not decorated, this also adds further to the history of the use of the site. Who has been up here? Were they enjoying the area, or working on the site? It is a little moment in history. 'This being my first dig of hopefully many more to come I've really enjoyed participating and watching parts of history slowly be uncovered and being able to see a clearer picture.'

[kingseatarchaeology]

Day 1: The Root(s) of all Evil

The first day of excavation at King’s Seat marks the start of a three year season of excavation, each September from 2017-2019.

Today, the team navigated their way up the winding slopes to our base for the next two weeks, with tents, tools and (most importantly) Tunnocks in tow. Arriving at the summit, it was clear how much of an impact the rhododendron previously covering the site would have had on access and visibility at the hillfort. The efforts of the volunteers who initiated and completed the vegetation clearance made it possible to identify all of the interesting lumps and bumps of this monument, which hopefully will understand even more about by the end of this two weeks.

After a site tour by Sarah at PKHT, and a health and safety talk by Andy from AOC, we laid out the three trenches which will be excavated this year. Trench 2 is at the summit, encompassing a rather impressive glacial erratic boulder, Trench 3 focuses on the entrance of the hillfort, and Trench 1 focuses on the terraces and ramparts cascading down from the lower terrace area. Many of these terraces may have been later activity, as a result of landscaping and manipulation of the terrain, and we hope to establish a good chronology for this over the course of the project.

The morning began with a Tunnock’s fuelled deturfing frenzy. Although, as there isn’t really much in the way of ‘turf’, the team opted for mattocks, saws and loppers to clear the fallen vegetation, matted roots and root stumps left by the rhododendron. Part of this excavation aims to assess the impact of these plants on the underlying archaeology, yet they did not impact our progress today! We made fantastic progress, clearing a lot of the trench area by lunchtime, and even coming down onto stone and possible features in Trench 2.

Now we wait to find out what lies beneath!

[kingseatarchaeology]

Topographical Survey Workshop August 2017

In August, a group of volunteers joined AOC’s survey team to undertake a survey of the King’s Seat hillfort before we begin excavations later this week. Training was given in various archaeological survey techniques, including use of a plane table which you can see in the pictures above. The plane table allows the surveyor to both observe and plot simultaneously, and is a good way to produce maps of small scale survey areas. We look forward to welcoming our volunteer team to the site again this Thursday, when we begin excavations!

[kingseatarchaeology]

Trowels Ready for King’s Seat

Welcome to the King’s Seat Community Archaeology Project Blog. Here you can read the latest news from the project including our excavation dig diary which will be coming very soon as it’s only 7 days now until we start our first season of excavations on the hillfort.

Preparations for the dig have been stepping up apace this week at PKHT and also on site with tree and lower lying vegetation clearance taking place to prepare the areas where the trenches will be going in. We have 5 trenches planned which we hope to open over the duration of the project and this year we’ll be starting with Trenches 1-3.

Keep checking back here for more updates as the Schools programme gets started next week and then deturfing!