Ben Bright, Clara Moore, Ben Moore, Sofia D’Onghia, Emily Rutter

The aim for this week was to lay-out and de-turf two trenches in what is thought to be a ‘scoped settlement on the northern side of Dunsapie Hill. On the first day a large square trench was laid out by the trench supervisor from AOC after consultation with LiDAR and data from the 2023 excavation. On Day 2 a long rectangle trench was open abutting a 2023 trench that ran down the slope through a rampart shown on the LiDAR.

A secondary aim was to remove the topsoil and colluvium layers. Once this was done GPS equipment will be used to establish trench layouts, record finds position, record levels across both trenches, and then use photogrammetry to tie records together.

This week we’ve focused on digging out a trench in Holyrood Park that is labelled trench 9. So far, we have de-turfed the top grass layer and are working on making our way through the Colluvium context. The trench is divided into a large square and a long narrow trench that follows down the slope through an opening in a rampart. We believe we have found the beginnings of the structure in the bottom left corner of the trench initially unearthed on Wednesday, using our trowels to dig around and chase the larger flat stones towards what we hope is an entryway/opening. While completing this the heel of a child’s shoe was discovered on Tuesday.  A shard of green glazed pottery and mortar were found on Thursday (day 4), both of which were very exciting! After finding it we learned the process of recording the small find which included documenting the find number, context it was discovered in and material as well as bagging it and then marking its precise location in the trench with a white tag. There’s a lot of dirt to dig through but things are looking promising! 

On Day 3 we extended the lower trench through the rampart, with an aim to locate the possible entrance to the scoop settlement. To the untrained eye, the best way to find these structures on the hillside is to walk along them and fall off/in them (according to our supervisor, who then said “but not a recommended procedure”). After we removed the topsoil and bought the trench down to the colluvium layer, we found that it was made completely of layers of rocks in varying sizes. At the top of the strip trench is a collection of rocks that appears to be the collapsed material of the outside wall of the roundhouse. Going down the trench we have a massive stone could possibly be something else or more collapsed material that rolled further down the hill. In the middle we have a compacted layer of stone that makes up the edge of the enclosing bank of the scope settlement – this has been built on pervious material of the rampart, but we are yet to see this. Finds so far in this section of trench include a Marmalade Jar from Dundee and an iron nail head.

 In the top square trench part the working theory at the moment is that all the stones that are of varying sizes are part of another collapsed wall of the iron age roundhouse, following an arc of stones that should make up the inner facings of a wall… even though right now it’s a bit difficult to see it all and to the more inexperienced eyes it just looks like a pile of rocks. Through all this digging we have found a variety of items, one of which is a lead musket ball (probably the most exciting one in my opinion), and although it might not be as old as some of the other treasures buried underneath, it tells a story about the activity happening within Holyrood park over the years that we could have only speculated about before.

Skills we’ve learnt this week?

  • To work as a team to de-turf the trenches, to help and consult with others during our excavation.
  • Proper trowelling and large tool use, trench safety and etiquette.
  • To view a trench and make a possible interpretation, which may be changed in the future, by recognising contexts and features
  • To prepare a trench for photogrammetry.
  • Small find recording process.
  • Using a GPS unit to record small finds
  • Photogrammetry

The piece of green glazed ceramic

A group of people digging in the dirt Description automatically generated

Removing the colluvium layer in the large section of the trench.

oA group of people digging in a field Description automatically generated

Removing the colluvium in the trench running down the slope running through an opening in the known rampart.