SERF blog

Monday, 17 August 2009

Day 14: OPEN DAY 16/08/09

The Open Day was a success - we had so many visitors! We would like to thank everyone who came along and took an interest in what we are doing. Below are some updates from the main sites...

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The henge...

SERF open day today, so a very busy day for us all. The day started a little grey and overcast, but brightened up later into a lovely sunny (if very windy) afternoon. I’m working on the mini-henge to the south of the main henge, planning a feature that appeared as I trowelled down through the henge ditch. However, we were so inundated with visitors today that none of us got much done. Instead, most of our time was spent giving guided tours or answering questions. In total we had over 600 visitors to the site – far more, I think, than anyone had expected. Many of the visitors had come because they had heard about the cist burial and wanted to see it for themselves. I think everyone was pleased to see that there are so many people interested in our site.

We left site today pleased that they day had gone so well. I think most of us would agree that it lived up to Leaf’s expectation yesterday that it would be the best open day ever.

Kirsty

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The cemetery

Well the tent survived the wind last night and the wind today! Busy and blustery day at the cemetery today, started off by finally being given a feature to dig, was quite fun even if it was only a posthole, especially as I found some burnt bone and charcoal. Dug part of the way down before I hit a layer of stones, I then took some pictures and did a section drawing before starting to dig the other half of the posthole to figure out if there was any pattern to the stones. Unfortunately I didn’t get much done as I was soon distracted by the hordes of people visiting the site for the open day, although we got significantly less people at the henge site got. Giving tours was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be and was actually quite enjoyable, though I did feel like I was starting to sound like a broken record and I never did get back to my posthole, which will now have to wait until Tuesday.

Those at the other end of the site started excavating more of the barrow ditch as well as cleaning around it revealing what may be some more graves.

Rachael

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2015 SERF Field School

The Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project field school for archaeology students will takes place 20 June - 10 July 2015 in and around the village of Dunning in Perthshire.

We will be posting updates of the excavations here and you are welcome to follow along and make comments. To find out more background information about SERF please visit our webpage.

Follow us on Twitter: SERFProject

We would like to thank local landowners and farmers for their support of our project.

Events in the Local Community
As part of the current phase of the SERF project which is based around Dunning, we will be continuing our community archaeology programme. This is intended to involve participation of local community through a range of activities including a Big Dig, a programme of schools outreach and public lectures.

Previous Seasons

2013 Season
In 2013 we excavated a prehistoric enclosure at Baldinnies, St Serfs church in Dunning, an Iron Age site at Kay Craig.

2012 Season
In 2012 we began the second half of the SERF project, or the first half of our acronym, moving out from Royal Forteviot into the Strathearn Environs! Work now shifted to the Dunning area, focusing on the prehistoric cropmarks at Leadketty Farm. A few trenches were opened around the medieval church of St Serf's in Dunning, which revealed a fragment of a Pictish cross amongst other things. Work also continued on Castle Craig Broch, turning up important evidence for the use and re-use of Roman material culture on an Iron Age settlement site.

2011 Season
In 2011 excavation began on new sites across Strathearn. A new hillfort with three visible ramparts was excavated at Ben Effrey while just down the hill a possible hillfort at Castle Craig turned out to be a broch! The topographic survey of this site shows the ramparts of an earlier enclosure on the site. Digging at Haly Hill in Forteviot uncovered the remains of a post-medieval structure and roadway and produced a lot of interesting finds.

2010 Season
In 2010 further excavations of the Forteviot monument complex were undertaken. We excavated trenches over a henge monument with a large central pit and a double ditched enclosure with a central 'triple cist'. Meanwhile the palisaded enclosure was revisited which enabled us to further record the nature of the postholes outwith the avenue. Also, in the same field, another Pictich square barrow was excavated.

2009 Season
In 2009 we continued our investigations of a Neolithic henge which has been extensively reworked in later prehistory/Early Medieval period. We also dug at a Pictish cemetery - focusing on a large enigmatic square enclosure.

Exploration of the wider context of the complex archaeology of Forteviot will continued with walkover and topographic surveys and a small excavation of a nearby river terrace fort.

2008 Season
In 2008 we opened a trench over a Neolithic henge monument within the large palisaded enclosure. Trenches at the Dunknock hillfort were also opened and aimed to ascertain the location of the rampart and ditch system.

Meanwhile the wider context of Strathearn was explored with standing building survey at Muckersie, topographic survey at various sites including Exmagirdle, Forteviot Churchyard and Muckersie Chapel and a geophysical survey at Blackford near the Pictish symbol stone. Walkover survey took place on the high ground above Forteviot aiming to record cultivation remains, enclosure boundaries and past routeways.

2007 Season

The first season of excavation at Forteviot focussed on the avenue of a large Neolithic palisaded enclosure. This site is full of interesting monuments and features such as a large henge monument within the enclosure.

Elsewhere a large trench was opened at Jackschairs hillfort to investigate the rampart and ditch system. In conjunction with this a topographic survey of the hillfort was performed, with the aim of recording the extent of the ramparts remaining under thick vegetation.

Walkover survey took place at the Black Hill of Kippen, geophysics was taking place in and around Forteviot and a standing building survey was done of Exmagirdle Chapel.

Over several weeks after the fieldschool a Pictish square barrow with several graves was also excavated by a group of keen students.

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Monday, 17 August 2009

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