Dunwell, A. J. (2007). Cist burials and an Iron Age settlement at Dryburn Bridge, Innerwick, East Lothian. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. https://doi.org/10.5284/1017938.

This report provides an account of the excavations of a cropmark enclosure and other prehistoric remains at Dryburn Bridge, near Innerwick in East Lothian. The excavations were directed over two seasons in 1978 and 1979 by Jon Triscott and David Pollock, and were funded by the Ancient Monuments Branch, Scottish Development Department. Features and artefacts of various periods were discovered during the excavations, including a Mesolithic chipped stone assemblage and pits associated with Impressed Ware pottery. A pair of distinctive burial cists dating to c2300-2000 cal BC was discovered, each containing two inhumations, one articulated and the other disarticulated; a Beaker vessel was found directly above one of the cists. By the mid first millennium cal BC a settlement had been founded on the site. Three successive settlement layouts can be interpreted from the excavated structures. The first two phases represent continuous occupation, dating to before 400 cal BC, and consisted of timber roundhouses, other rectangular structures and a small cemetery of pit graves located within a palisaded enclosure. The final occupation phase, which extended into the Roman Iron Age and may have occurred after a break in occupation, consisted of an unenclosed settlement of ring-ditch houses. Historic Scotland and predecessor bodies funded the post-excavation studies and publication of this report.

Mesolithic activity was represented by a small assemblage of worked stone artefacts. Two cists each containing two individuals are of late Neolithic/early Bronze Age date as are a few pits, pottery sherds and stone artefacts.

Dates obtained in 1979/80 are compared with those obtained in 2004. The results indicate that all four individuals probably died in the period 2300-2000 cal BC.

This section comprised a detailed archaeological description of the excavated features of the Iron Age settlement. Features include enclosing works (inner and outer enclosures), a variety of building types (post-ring, ring-groove, ring-ditch and rectangular structures), pit graves, fence lines, pitted boundaries, fence-lines, pits, postholes and a dog burial. Radiocarbon dates are also incorporated.

Specialist reports on faunal remains, human remains and isotope analysis of both assemblages.

Certain elements of the site can be placed into a chronological sequence on the basis of the radiocarbon dates and can contribute to an overall model of settlement development.

The report has presented a revised view of settlement development, based upon the observed stratigraphic, dating and spatial evidence; the identification of planned layouts based upon frontage alignments, and changes to those alignments over time; and the presence of Roman material culture.