peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_059

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE EARLY IRON AGE

likely that a number of other Early Iron Age monuments are included amongst the miscellan-
eous earthworks and enclosures (Nos. 417-466), but the dates of these works can only be
determined by excavation.
Before the monuments are discussed, a digression is necessary to describe the types of
timber houses that are associated with many of them. As far as is known, all the dwellings
built in southern Scotland and northern England during the pre-Roman Iron Age were more
or less circular on plan, and excavation has revealed at least four types of timber houses. As
surface traces of such houses are often visible in the homesteads, settlements and hill-forts
described in the body of the Inventory, it will be convenient to summarise the evidence here.
The simplest kind of house was supported on a ring of posts set in individual post-holes,
and consequently houses of this type never appear on the surface. House I at West Plean
(Stirlingshire), ¹ and the earliest house at West Brandon (County Durham), ² are typical
representatives of this class. Each has a central post-hole, and in both cases the ring of post-
holes measures about 22 ft. in diameter. It is possible that such houses existed in some of the
apparently empty palisaded or walled enclosures, but their presence can only be detected by
excavation. The house uncovered in the palisaded homestead on Glenachan Rig (No. 197) was
exactly similar to the two cited, except that it was surrounded by a shallow depression. The
earliest house at Harehope (No. 199), which had a ring of posts but no central member, is
presumably a variant form.
The majority of the timber houses that can be recognised from surface traces belong to the
so-called "ring-ditch" and "ring-groove" types. ³ The ring-ditch house appears on the surface
as a shallow annular or penannular ditch, enclosing an area about 30 ft. in diameter: the width
of the ditch is not uniform but may average about 6 ft. The most recent excavation of a house
of this kind, at High Knowes (Northumberland), ⁴ revealed a ring of post-holes in the interior
near the inner lip of the ditch, and a ring of small post-holes, indicating the position of the
wall of the house, on the outer lip of the ditch. A few earthfast stones which are visible on the
outer lip of the ring-ditch house in the palisaded homestead on South Hill Head (No. 205)
presumably represent part of the packing of such a wall.
The ring-groove house appears on the surface in the form of a shallow annular or pen-
annular depression, much narrower than the ring-ditch. This is sometimes accompanied, at a
distance of some 4 ft. inside it, by a similar groove; and in some cases a circular depression or a
crescentic sca,p [scarp], situated in the central area, shows where the floor has been levelled. Houses of
this kind were first excavated at Hayhope Knowe (Roxburghshire). ⁵ If a ring-groove house is
on a considerable slope, the crescentic scarp in the interior is likely to be deep, and only a
segment of the groove may be visible on the surface, lying a short distance above the upper
limit of the scarp.
While there exist many well-defined examples of both ring-ditch and ring-groove houses,
in some cases the state of the vegetation and the effects of weathering render identification
uncertain.

1 P.S.A.S., lxxxix (1955-6), 227 ff., 251.
2 Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, xl (1962), 1 ff.
3 Inventory of Roxburghshire, p. 19.
4 Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, xl (1962), 34.
5 P.S.A.S., lxxxiii (1948-9), 45 ff.

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