Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 131

Account of the discovery and excavation of a site comprising a scatter of pits or post-holes, including a rectangular arrangement of post-holes interpreted as a timber building. Pottery, worked stone and carbonized crop plants were recovered and the site is interpreted as a relatively short-lived agricultural settlement. Radiocarbon dating suggests an occupation date of between 3,500 and 2,920 cal BC. The report discusses the wider issues of the dating of Scottish Late Neolithic Impressed Ware and its relationship to other styles of pottery, the use of flint in Neolithic Scotland and the nature of settlement in the Neolithic. Includes sections on: Fieldwork at Kinbeachie (briefly describes the initial investigations, evaluation, excavation and analysis of the results), Dating, Pottery, Carbonized plant remains (including a large proportion of cereal crops (barley and emmer wheat) and other economic species), Worked stone (analysis of fifty pieces of worked stone, including a small polished axehead), Interpretation of the site at Kinbeachie (discusses the date and duration of activity, the nature and function of the site, and the local Neolithic context), Wider implications of the site: Scottish Neolithic Impressed Wares, Wider implications of the site: the use of flint

Report on the discovery of a large Cordoned Urn containing the cremated remains of an adult female and a neonate or foetal infant. The urn also contained twenty-two mostly fragmentary segmented beads and one star-shaped bead, all faience. The urn had been inverted in a pit and pyre debris placed over the upper fill of the pit. This deposit contained a further two faience beads, one star-shaped and incomplete, the other quoit-shaped, and a small chunk of flint. The urn and beads are similar to those found on Culbin Sands nearby during the nineteenth century. Charcoal from the pyre debris was radiocarbon dated to c.3410 BP. Includes sections on: The cremated bone; Faience; Appendix: analysis of the blue staining on bone.

Report of an excavation and geophysical survey conducted by the Roman Gask Project on a rectangular enclosure beside the Roman road. The site had been thought to be a possible Roman fortlet but, although it yielded only Roman dating material, it did not appear to be military in nature. Includes sections on: The samian ware; The flints; The iron agricultural implements from Trench 8.

Between 1984 and 1990 the late G D B Jones and C M Daniels undertook excavation at four large rectilinear cropmark sites at Easter Galcantray (Nairnshire), Thomshill and Balnageith (Morayshire) and Boyndie (Banffshire). This work successfully identified discrete phases of activity dating from the Neolithic through to historic times. The excavators believed that the rectilinear enclosures had been Roman military fortifications linked to the Agricolan advance into north-eastern Scotland. The paper documents the evidence acquired through this fieldwork, and attempts to present and assess the interpretation which the excavators placed on their discoveries.

Report on the trial excavation between 1991 and 1993 of a cropmark enclosure. Excavation revealed three possible phases of activity. These include possible Mesolithic activity; a probable unenclosed phase of settlement dating to the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age; and finally a phase of enclosure which may be associated with the formation of a substantial settlement dating to the middle centuries of the first millennium AD. Includes sections on: Pottery; Appendix: pottery catalogue (by SF no).

Report of an excavation in 1998 on the site previously occupied by the former lock house of a military barracks. A sequence of deposits was identified reflecting around 2,000 years of human influence. The earliest feature identified was a large ditch which may have formed part of the defences/enclosure system of the promontory fort previously identified at Castle Park. A rectangular building, probably contemporary with the Anglian occupation of the area, was built over the top of the ditch. Between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD the site was used as a cemetery. A midden above the cemetery and below the foundations of the military barracks contained a substantial quantity of elephant ivory off-cuts in deposits dating to the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Includes sections on: Human bone (including an analysis of demographic characteristics, stature and body build, health and disease); The finds (including bone objects, copper alloy objects and pottery); The charred plant remains; The ivory.

Summaries include: Preparing for the afterlife: the human experience of death; The circumnavigation of Scotland by Agricola's fleet in the early AD 80s: possible evidence from Dun Ardtreck, Skye; A diet of limpets?; New work by the Scotland's First Settlers Project; Event and process in the Scottish Viking Age.