Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 129

Rescue excavations on an extensive cropmark site at the conference of the Lyne Water and Meldon Burn in the 1970s revealed several episodes of activity. A limited Mesolithic presence is indicated by the stone finds, but more intensive use is attested from the early/mid fourth millennium BC. Widely scattered groups of pits contained Impressed Ware of the local style. Radiocarbon dates chart this activity down to the early/mid third millennium BC, when a massive timber wall, 600m long and up to 4m in height, was constructed to shut off the 8ha promontory fort between Lyne Water and the Meldon Burn. A timber avenue led into the enclosure on the north-west; standing posts and stones and settings of posts and stakes were erected; and cremation burials took place in the interior. No cultural material can certainly be associated with this phase and it probably lasted a century or less. A large stockade within the main enclosure could not be dated with certainty. A disturbed cist burial, yielding a jet pendant, `slug' knife and possible Food Vessel sherds, may have been interred as one of the final acts in this phase. Renewed activity came in the mid/late second millennium when the site was used for an extensive cremation cemetery. This involved erecting rows of posts, some standing in pits containing cremations. There was also a burial in a rough cist, and two cremations deposited in Cordoned Urns. There is no evidence for further activity until the Roman period when the road from Newstead to Castledykes was driven through the site, disturbing some of the prehistoric features. There were Roman forts just to the west at Easter Happrew and Lyne, and large temporary camps at Meldon Bridge itself. One of these partly overlay the prehistoric site, and appeared to have been constructed after the road. Long afterwards an eighteenth-century turnpike road was laid down on top of the old Roman road. At least some of the gravel pits found on both sides of the road were dug in this phase. Specialist contributions are as follows:

Between 1980 and 1984 a number of finds of EBA metalwork were recovered via metal-detecting from an area of rough ground at the head of a small disused quarry. This report considers the character of the metalwork and the context in which that material was deposited. It concludes that the entire assemblage could have resulted from more than one period of votive deposition, and that these activities focused upon a prominent, but natural, long mound and occurred in an area which may have been demarcated by other natural points of reference.

A group of burnt mounds vulnerable to coastal erosion was surveyed in Spring 1996. Rescue excavation conducted at one of these sites, Tangwick, uncovered a burnt mound in close association with a specialised, non-domestic, structure of BA date. It is concluded that Tangwick represents a distinct site-type, previously little recognised, and it is proposed that such sites may have been used for feasting, possibly on a seasonal basis. More broadly, the results of survey work indicate that burnt mounds in Shetland are not a homogenous class of site and this variety has not been adequately accounted for within the prevailing models.

A rescue excavation in a machair blow-out at Sanaigmhor Warren, Islay, recovered two urned cremations, one under a cairn comprised mainly of white quartz, and the other in a cist, associated with an orthostat. The cremations were radiocarbon dated to the IA. The paper sets these finds in their local and regional context, and briefly discusses burial practices in the period concerned. The Sanaigmhor Warren area is discussed in terms of its future archaeological potential.

A survey and excavations were undertaken in 1996 in response to evidence of rabbit damage to the earthworks. The work has shown that the evolution of the site is considerably more complex than had been recognised. The broch may have been constructed during the lifetime of the settlement. The status and wealth of the site are discussed, and considered in relation to aspects of Roman/native interaction and there are notes on

Excavations in 1996 revealed information about the fort defences, north and west annexe defences, amphitheatre, and first- and second-century AD extramural settlement. This contributes to the debate on the function and status of annexes both at Newstead and in other contemporary Roman forts, and to understanding of Roman interaction with the indigenous population. Proposed identification of a small amphitheatre underlies that status of Newstead as a major military base, but also suggests that arenas were far more common than has generally been recognised, stimulating a search for similar structures at other Roman sites in Scotland.

The study of utilitarian pottery from the Antonine Wall has distinguished small numbers of locally made vessels with North African affinities at nine or ten forts. Similar vessels at Chester and others made by Legio XX at the Holt works depot, one with a potter's graffito in neo-Punic suggest the presence of North Africans. It is suggested that detachments sent from Britain to Pius' Mauretanian war of AD 146-49 may have brought North Africans back with them to Britain. At the western sector of the Antonine Wall, changes in the legionary work-stints may be linked to troop reductions for the war, as the mural barrier and Bearsden Duntocher fort interiors were still unfinished. After the conflict, Bearsden and Duntocher were each partitioned to make an annexe and their internal buildings re-planned and completed; a programme of annexe construction began at other forts, and secondary alterations were made to many existing fort interiors. All may be connected with changes in units or in the composition of the returning garrisons, now perhaps mixed and augmented with small numbers of North African troops. Possible relevant epigraphic evidence is examined.