Excavations at a Multi-period Site at Greenbogs, Aberdeenshire, Scotland and the Four-post Timber Architecture Tradition of Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland

Abstract

This report outlines the unexpected discovery of a group of Late Neolithic structures at Greenbogs, Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, along with a series of later prehistoric features in the mid-1990s. Recent radiocarbon dating shows that two four-post timber structures found here date to the period 2890–2490 cal bc. These were found in association with a range of other features including an oval structure and diffuse areas of burning. The closest parallels for the four-post structures can be found in a slowly growing body of Late Neolithic timber structures, some being interpreted as roofed dwellings and others as roofed or unroofed monuments. This article places the Greenbogs structures in their wider context, identifies a number of unexcavated parallels in the aerial record and addresses the nature of the four-post structures found across Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland and suggests that four-post structures were a more common element of Late Neolithic architecture than previously identified. A common building type appears to have been shared across large areas of Britain and Ireland in a variety of contexts, from the seemingly mundane to the more ‘charged’, as part of elaborate monument complexes. The later prehistoric features identified at Greenbogs include a concentration of Middle Bronze Age features including graves containing cremated human bones, one with an upright urn, and a number of Iron Age pits and other features.

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“…The feature had shallow terminals measuring 0.20m in depth and a deeper central portion measuring 0.50m. The ring-ditch have measured 10m north to south by 6m east to west, although the east side was not present, and is almost identical to the size of Structure C at Greenbogs (Noble et al 2012). Structure 12 comprised a series of post-holes varying between 0.30m and 0.50m in width but only up to 0.18m in depth, demonstrating considerable truncation.…”

“…At Grantown Road, the relative depth and good survival of the central posts suggest that if there were surrounding wall structures they should survive, so their absence could be explained by the use of turf-built walls. Similar examples were excavated at Greenbogs, but produced Neolithic dates (Noble et al 2012). However, while this may be a likely scenario on other sites, the lack of associated features, especially in comparison to other structures on site, suggests that they were simple four-post structures.…”

“…Three sherds of two different carinated bowls were recovered from Four-post 2, a structure radiometrically dated to the Middle Iron Age. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the radiocarbon dates; two were obtained, from separate pieces of wood (although it should be noted here that Neolithic dates were obtained from four-post structures at Greenbogs (Noble et al 2012)). The Neolithic ceramic could have been deposited in the Iron Age structure either inadvertently through natural taphonomic processes or deliberately, as an act of curation.…”

Beyond Newgrange: Brú na Bóinne in the later Neolithic

“…These comprise an increasingly diverse group of earthen and timber monuments, most likely dating to the early-middle 3rd millennium BC. They include 'embanked enclosures' (see Stout 1991) or henge monuments (see below), circular/sub-circular enclosures incorporating a central four-post setting ('square-in-circle' monuments or 'four-post structures'eg, Bradley 2007, 119;Noble et al 2012;Carlin & Cooney 2017), and timber structures, including palisades and post alignments. This monumental complex has seen relatively little ground-based research and has largely been discovered in recent years through aerial photography, satellite imagery, analysis of LiDAR data, and large-scale geomagnetic surveys (Davis et al 2013;Condit & Keegan 2018Davis 2018;Rassmann et al 2019; see Fig.…”

“…The architectural motif of squares within circles has been elaborated upon in detail elsewhere (eg, Pollard 2012, 100-2). Likewise, late Neolithic fourpost structures have been reviewed elsewhere in both Scotland (Noble et al 2012) and in Ireland (in Brophy 2016, 217-20;Smyth 2014;Carlin & Cooney 2017, 42-6).…”