the Roman Gask Project

THE ROMAN GASK PROJECT
ANNUAL REPORT 2004
D.J.Woolliscroft

Illustrations to the annual report

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Gask home Fieldwork
2004 has been our busiest field season yet; with two excavations, three more of our series of very large, whole Roman fort geophysical surveys and a continuation of our air photographic program. As always, our work attracted volunteers from a wide geographical area, with diggers from Canada and the USA taking part alongside those from the UK.
Excavations East Coldoch.
Another three week season was conducted on this well preserved Roman Iron Age settlement and it continued to yield fascinating and often unexpected data. We already knew from previous seasons that we had a complex series of superimposed structures stretching over at least a thousand years, but the 2004 dig produced yet more structural complexity. The excavation centres around a large, c. 13m diameter, roundhouse which sits inside a substantial ring ditch. We already had glass and a C14 date which showed that it was occupied around the time of the 1st century Gask frontier and burned down, probably in the third century. It thus spanned the time of Roman involvement in Scotland and so formed an excellent resource for studying Roman/native interaction. We also knew that it had been rebuilt at least once, suggesting a lengthy occupation. The 2004 season was largely dedicated to studying the floor levels of this house and revealed signs of a still longer period of use. Traces of a later floor than so far encountered had survived the plough towards the eastern side of the site and this was accompanied by late third to fourth century glass beads and a fragment of fourth century Roman vessel glass. The latter was particularly interesting as it showed that the site continued to have access to Roman material culture long after any military involvement in the area had ended. This is not the first such evidence that the Project has uncovered, for Roman pottery of much the same date was found some years ago on what appears to be a native site adjoining the Gask tower of Peel, and it will be interesting to see if other sites produce similar evidence in future.

Beneath this late floor lay parts of another, which had been heavily burnt and produced Roman Samian pottery of mid second century, Antonine date. It too was badly plough damaged, but the date would fit with that of the house whose carbon dated destruction by fire has already been mentioned

http://www.theromangaskproject.org.uk/Pages/Introduction/AnnualReport04.html