Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 126

Excavations have thrown light on the history and use of the castle from its construction, c. 1200, to the present day. A forge and kilns are evidence of industrial activity prior to 1650. Evidence for ranges of buildings within the courtyard amplifies previous descriptions of the castle. There are specialist reports on: `Coins' by Nicholas M McQ Holmes (533--4); `The ceramics' by D Caldwell & H Stewart (546--50); `The botanical remains' by T G Holden (550--2); `Charcoal' by Coralie Mills (552--3); `Faunal remains' by Finbar McCormick (553--5).

Excavation to the immediate west of the castle revealed considerable evidence of occupation (probably not continuous) dating from c. 1200 to at least the mid-sixteenth century. Most of the structures uncovered were associated with the medieval burgh not the castle. The first timber buildings gave way to a fourteenth-century tannery, probably when the castle was in ruins and unoccupied. The tannery gave way to two phases of residential buildings, either of masonry or set in stone foundations. The latest of these structures were set against a new boundary wall, all probably dating to the mid-sixteenth century when the adjacent road, the Scores, was realigned. From an earlier period, Beaker sherds indicate prehistoric settlement, although no associated features could be identified. There are specialist reports on: `Coins' by Nicholas M McQ Holmes (635); `Small finds' by D Caldwell (635--45); `The inscribed stone' by John Higgitt (646--7); `Prehistoric pottery' by Helen Smith (647--8); `Medieval pottery' by George Haggerty & Robert Will (648--69); `Mammal bones' by Finbar McCormick (669--71); `Bird and fish bones' by Sheila Hamilton-Dyer (671--2); `The micromorphology of a buried soil' by Stephen Carter (672--4); `Palaeobotanical analysis of samples from period 3 pits A, B & C' by Coralie Mills (675).

Two excavations within the medieval burgh provided the opportunity to investigate an early industrial zone on the western side of Meal Vennel and a relatively rich undeveloped area in the backlands of Scott Street. The artefact rich Meal Vennel excavation revealed evidence of a possible early western boundary of the town, timber and stone buildings and industrial activities including grain drying and iron smithing. Backland activities including sand quarrying, the digging of rubbish pits and dumping of midden, were investigated at Scott Street. A number of questions relating to the medieval development of Perth were addressed. `Excavations at Meal Vennel' by Richard Sermon & Adrian Cox (736--51), including: `The pottery' by Peter Cheer (753--9); a gold and sapphire ring and the copper alloy objects including dress fasteners/fittings and keys, a mount and fittings, needles, padlock components, pendants, pins, rivets, seal matrix, sheets and strips, thimbles and tweezers; lead alloy objects; iron objects including arrowheads, buckles, horse equipment, household ironwork, and knives are detailed along with a `Metallurgy of the knives' by Paul Harrison (776--7), locks and keys, structural ironwork, and tools; stone objects; bone and antler objects including perforated bones and horn cores, horn-working evidence, pins, antler offcuts; the glass including a bead, linen smoother(?) and window glass; `Coins and a jetton' by Nicholas Holmes (789--90); `The flint' by Jill Harden (790 & 791); ceramic roof tiles; industrial residues; `The leather' by Clare Thomas (792); `The animal bone' by Catherine Smith (792--4); and `Botanical remains' by Alan Fairweather (795). `Excavations at Scott Street' by Jonathan Burrows (795--801) is followed by the specialist reports from that site including: `The pottery' by Peter Cheer (801--4); copper alloy objects; lead alloy objects; iron objects; stone objects; the wooden cask; `Textiles' by Thea Gabra-Sanders (810--11); ceramic floor tiles; glass; clay pipes; `Coins' by Nicholas Holmes (812); `Mammal and bird bone' by Catherine Smith (812--13); `Botanical remains' by Alan Fairweather (813--14).

A re-evaluation of the construction dates for these two houses putting them at the turn of the sixteenth-century. Longstanding misconceptions are thought to have led to errors in the dating of similar structures.

Expansion on an earlier theme providing further examples of the IHS monogram and also arguing that crosslet gunloops were in fact Catholic Christian symbols.

Articulated human skeletons and disarticulated bones recovered in 1993 from excavations in the area of the former Lady Yester's Kirkyard showed clear evidence of post-mortem dissection. They are identified as the `unclaimed' dead buried by the Royal Infirmary in the second half of the eighteenth century. There was evidence for post-mortem tooth removal from all the dentitions recovered during the excavation, probably for the manufacture of sets of false teeth. A further assemblage of human bones, found in 1988 adjacent to eighteenth/nineteenth-century anatomy schools formed part of a teaching collection from the schools.

Includes: `The castle complex revisited: recent research on the Atlantic Iron Age' by D W Harding (963--5); `The Newstead excavations: a Roman frontier post and its people revisited' by Simon Clarke (965--6); `The Iceman -- a mountaineer of 5000 years ago' by G W Groenman-van Waateringe (967); `Enclosing, planting and building: the contribution of the Montgomery Act of 1770 on the agriculture and landscape of the Border counties' by Kitty Cruft (968--9); `The Auld Stane Man' by A V B Norman (970); `A typology of the equestrian chase motif in early medieval Pictish sculpture' by Ann Carrington (970--1).