Dawn McLaren

Excavation of a burnt mound at Meur, Sanday, Orkney

In early 2005 a cluster of orthostat stones was exposed by coastal erosion at Meur, Sanday, Orkney. The excavation revealed a stone trough within the centre of an open space defined by walls. It was associated with at least one compartment and a secondary corbelled cistern with an overflow drain and was surrounded by a mound of dark soil and burnt stones. This burnt mound structure, comparable with other burnt mounds in the Northern Isles, was occupied at some time between the late 2nd millennium and the mid 1st millennium BC. The evidence from Meur and its comparison with evidence from elsewhere strongly indicates cooking as the primary function of this burnt mound. It is proposed that such cooking took the form of communal feasts that served to optimise the limited resources of the islands land holdings and so maintain social cohesion. This accords with evidence from elsewhere on Sanday for social and economic stability throughout this period.

Excavations at a Multi-period Site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the Four-post Timber Architecture Tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland

This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc. These were found in association with a range of other features including an oval structure and diffuse areas of burning. The closest parallels for the four-post structures can be found in a slowly growing body of Late Neolithic timber structures, some being interpreted as roofed dwellings and others as roofed or unroofed monuments. This article places the Greenbogs structures in their wider context, identifies a number of unexcavated parallels in the aerial record and addresses the nature of the four-post structures found across Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland and suggests that four-post structures were a more common element of Late Neolithic architecture than previously identified. A common building type appears to have been shared across large areas of Britain and Ireland in a variety of contexts, from the seemingly mundane to the more ‘charged’, as part of elaborate monument complexes. The later prehistoric features identified at Greenbogs include a concentration of Middle Bronze Age features including graves containing cremated human bones, one with an upright urn, and a number of Iron Age pits and other features.

Excavations on the site of a late Iron Age roundhouse and souterrain, Glen Cloy, Brodick, Isle of Arran

Archaeological monitoring during topsoil stripping of a hotel and leisure development site in Glen Cloy, Isle of Arran in 2001 revealed the presence of a well-preserved, substantial roundhouse and an associated complex souterrain. The discovery is significant in terms of the information it provides for the distribution of souterrains in Scotland generally and in the west in particular, and for settlement and craft activities on Arran in the late Iron Age. Dates obtained from the roundhouse suggest a construction date in the late 2nd or early 1st century BC.