east-lothian-1924/05-179

Transcription

PRESTONKIRK.] -- INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. -- [PRESTONKIRK.

discontinued and was not resumed until May 1919.
Since then digging has been carried on each
year throughout the summer. It has been
found that soil has accumulated on the site,
from the earliest period of occupation, to a
depth in places of little short of 4 feet. At
about 14 inches below the present surface the
latest floor level is encountered. From this
downwards, till the natural rubble or rock is
reached, evidences occur of more or less con-
tinuous occupation, but it has been found
advisable to take four arbitrary levels at a few
inches apart. As the original surface on which
the soil is accumulated is not persistently level
throughout but is here and there broken by
obtruding masses of rock, it will be readily
understood that none of the levels except the
top one can be taken as representing an exactly
contemporaneous occupation ; for, where the
ground rises, evidences of an occupation clearly
belonging to the earliest period may be found
on the horizon one laid down above a hollow
at a much later date. The foundations ex-
posed on these floor levels consist for the
most part of fragmentary masses of the native
rock with very rarely any indication of building.
Paved areas suggest the interiors of dwellings,
and remains of burned clay, bearing distinctly
on one side the impress of wattles, indicate
that the walls have been formed of wattle and
daub. On the highest level occur the most
noticeable indications of structure. The houses
in all cases have been curvilinear, sometimes
apparently with hearths inside, but in other
cases it would appear with the hearths in the
open. There has nowhere been any indication
of masonry or the use of dressed stone.
Numerous hearths have been exposed, oblong
and rectangular, usually surrounded with a
kerb of ware-worn stones or pieces of rock set
on edge and paved with fragments of sandstone
neatly fitted together. The lowest level of all
has throughout been most prolific in the yield
of relics. From the objects recovered it is
evident that the earliest occupation of the
hill occurred during some period of the later
Stone Age. Polished axes, arrow heads of
flint and scrapers have been brought to light.
Among the arrow heads the prevailing type is
the leaf-shaped or lozenge-shaped ; only two
barbed arrow heads having so far been found.
A small Tardenoisian or pigmy flint was dis-

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covered in 1922. The evidences of the Bronze
Age occupation are more numerous and point
to it having occurred during the latest
period of that phase of culture. It is evidenced
by finds of socketed axes (fig. 138), small
straight sided chisels, a shouldered chisel and
one or two parts of dagger blades. But perhaps
the most interesting relics of this period are
fragments of the handle portion of a clay mould
for casting a bronze sword and a portion of a
smaller mould for a spear head with a lunette
opening in the blade. A longitudinal perfor-
ation in the mould for a sword beneath the
matrix indicates that, to give stability to the
mould, it has been reinforced evidently with a
rod of bronze, some 3/16 inch in diameter. Bronze
Age pottery is represented by the remains of
four cinerary urns and a small incense cup,
found with incinerated remains in a hollow in
the rocks. Of the Iron Age the earliest relics
found thus far are probably a socketed axe of
iron conforming to the Bronze Age type, and a
pin 3 inches in length with a circular head 3/4 inch
in width with deep concavities on each side.
The general character of the relics recovered
throughout the various levels is, however,
Celtic and corresponds generally to those of
Romano-British times in the south. It is
noteworthy, moreover, that taken from the
bottom upwards, the number of finds and of
fragments of pottery diminishes in inverse
ration to the depth at which they have been
found. Though the evidences of occupation on
the latest floor level are coextensive with those
on the earliest, the relics from the former are
as a rule practically negligible.
The list of coins found ranges from a legion-
ary denarius of Mark Anthony of the 1st
century to coins of Arcadius and Honorious
in the beginning of the 5th century, at which
time the occupation of the hill appears to
have terminated. By collation over a number
of years a fairly accurate chronology of the
finds could probably be arrived at. The time
has not yet come, however, when each object
can be absolutely relegated to its particular
period.
The relics found have been numerous and
attention may be drawn to the more important.
Weapons are represented by spears (fig. 141),
spear-butts and fragments of swords. The
spears are of two sorts : those which are leaf-

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