Cist burials and an Iron Age settlement at Dryburn Bridge, Innerwick, East Lothian

Abstract

This report provides an account of the excavations of a cropmark enclosure and other prehistoric remains at Dryburn Bridge, near Innerwick in East Lothian (NGR: NT 724 755). The excavations were directed over two seasons in 1978 and 1979 by Jon Triscott and David Pollock, and were funded by the Ancient Monuments Branch, Scottish Development Department. Features and artefacts of various periods were discovered during the excavations, including a Mesolithic chipped stone assemblage and pits associated with Impressed Ware pottery. A pair of distinctive burial cists dating to c 2300–2000 cal BC was discovered, each containing two inhumations, one articulated and the other disarticulated; a Beaker vessel was found directly above one of the cists. By the mid-1st millennium cal BC a settlement had been founded on the site. Three successive settlement layouts can be interpreted from the excavated structures. The first two phases represent continuous occupation, dating to before 400 cal BC, and consisted of timber roundhouses, other rectangular structures and a small cemetery of pit graves located within a palisaded enclosure. The final occupation phase, which extended into the Roman Iron Age and may have occurred after a break in occupation, consisted of an unenclosed settlement of ring-ditch houses.

Predicting skeletal stature using ancient DNA

“…Some aspects of diet can be reconstructed from stable isotope data (O'Brien, 2015), so we searched for δ 13 C and δ 15 N values for the individuals in our study. We found data for about half the individuals (n = 69; Afshar et al, 2019;Antanaitis-Jacobs & Ogrinc, 2000;Antanaitis-Jacobs et al, 2009;Andrews & Thompson, 2016;Antonio et al, 2019;Berthold et al, 2008;Dunwell, 2007;Kjellström, 2005;Kjellström et al, 2009;Lehuray et al, 2006;Mathieson et al, 2018;Malmström et al, 2019;Müldner et al, 2011;Münster et al, 2018;Olalde et al, 2018;Price et al, 2016;Scheibner, 2016;Szczepanek, 2013;Stockhammer et al, 2015;Waterman et al, 2016;Weber et al, 2011Weber et al, , 2016.…”

“…We restricted analyses to adult individuals free from reported major pathology, specifically those that could have affected growth (including cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis and indications of leprosy) or prevented accurate measurement (including femoral fractures, osteomalacia and severe osteoarthritis). Ultimately, from approximately 4000 published aDNA samples (Antonio et al, 2019; Brace et al, 2019; de Barros Damgaard et al, 2018; Fernandes et al, 2018; Fu et al, 2016; Furtwängler et al, 2020; González‐Fortes et al, 2017; Krzewińska et al, 2018; Lipson et al, 2017; Margaryan et al, 2020; Martiniano et al, 2016; Mathieson et al, 2015, 2018; Mittnik et al, 2018, 2019; Narasimhan et al, 2019; Olalde et al, 2018, 2019; Schiffels et al, 2016; Schroeder et al, 2019; Sikora et al, 2017), we compiled metric data for 182 individuals (Alciati, 1967; Alpaslan‐Roodenberg, 2001; Andrews & Thompson, 2016; Auerbach, 2004; Auerbach & Ruff, 2004; Berthold et al, 2008; Boroneant, 2010; Caffell & Holst, 2012; Cairns, 2015; Dunwell, 2007; Fokkens et al, 2017; Frei et al, 2019; Kitti, 2008; Kjellström, 2005; Köhler et al, 2017; Malmström et al, 2019; Massy, 2018; Pardini, 1977; Price et al, 2016; Rosenstock et al, 2019; Saag et al, 2020; Schiffels et al, 2016; Szczepanek, 2013; Tebelskis & Jankauskas, 2002). We removed 28 samples with more than 95% missing genetic data and one individual with an unusually short femur (AITI_95, see below), bringing the sample size to 153.…”

Archaeology and Environment in Northumberland

“…As we have seen, some palisaded settlements, including those at Murton High Crags (Jobey and Jobey 1987), Ingram Hill (Jobey 1971) and Fawdon Dean (Frodsham and Waddington 2004), have produced dates as late as the late first century cal AD and it would not be surprising if a proportion of the unenclosed settlements in this area ultimately proved to belong in Iron Age rather than Bronze Age contexts. At Doddington Bridge North (NT 999 314; HER 2159), for example, on the eastern edge of the Milfield Basin, a series of disc-shaped cropmarks on the west side of the road could well represent a group of unenclosed ring-ditch houses, a form of settlement for which dates early in the Iron Age have already been obtained at Douglasmuir in Angus (Kendrick 1982) and Dryburn Bridge in East Lothian (Triscott 1982;Dunwell 2007). On the east side of the road, a further group of ring ditches seems more likely to represent a contemporary cemetery, as suggested by Waddington (Fig.…”

“…Otherwise the dates available for each region on their own would be few, and the resultant picture misleading. Further dates for two key sites in East Lothian, Broxmouth and Dryburn Bridge, can be found in the various publications by Hill (1982a;, Triscott (1982) and Dunwell (2007). The dates from the two Fawdon Dene enclosures have been separated since enclosure 1 is curvilinear or 'eggshaped' and has been included in the table of nonrectilinear palisades (Table 7.2), while the overlying enclosure 2 is more rectilinear, albeit with rounded corners (see Frodsham and Waddington 2004, Fig.…”

“…To the north, in East Lothian, the Early Iron Age palisaded settlement at Dryburn Bridge was replaced by an unenclosed settlement comprising 'ring ditch' houses of which House 2 produced a group of radiocarbon dates clustering in the early-mid-first millennium cal BC (Triscott 1982, 123;Dunwell 2007). Elsewhere in East Lothian, at Phantassie, an unenclosed site has recently been excavated and a sequence of sixty radiocarbon dates obtained, revealing a settlement that thrived in the last two centuries cal BC and the first two centuries cal AD (Lelong 2008a).…”