Excavation of pits containing grooved ware at Hillend, Clydesdale district, Strathclyde Region

Abstract

Limited excavations were carried out in advance of pipeline construction in the area between two adjacent cropmark enclosures at Hillend, near Roberton, Clydesdale District, Strathclyde Region. The principal features
 comprised three pits which produced an assemblage of Grooved Ware, strengthening the possibility that one of the enclosures may have been a henge monument and inviting speculation as to the date and relationship of the other enclosure, hitherto identified tentatively as a later prehistoric settlement. An isotopic date for one of the pits is discussed. The archaeological potential of the sites has been highlighted and their fragility demonstrated.

Developer-funded fieldwork in Scotland, 1990-2003

“…For example, Impressed Ware was recovered from pits at Mill of Dyce Quarry, Aberdeen (Centre for Field Archaeology 1994a) and Unstan Ware from a pit group at Spurryhillock Junction (Alexander 1997). The discovery of Grooved Ware pits (Cowie & MacSween 1999) had been more common on sites in the south and east of Scotland, such as at the Craighead Golf Course in Fife (Dalland 1996) and Hillend on the North-West Ethylene Pipeline in S Lanarkshire (Armit & Hamilton 1992), but they have now been discovered at Fordafourie, Fraserburgh (Murray 2003), in the north-east of Scotland. Grooved Ware in the Durrington Walls sub-style was recovered at Milton of Leys, Inverness (Conolly & MacSween 2003), where it constitutes the most northerly find of this type of pottery and one of the earliest dates for the style in Britain.…”

“…At Hoprig, Scottish Borders, the cist was inserted into the centre of a ringditch (Rees 1999). On the North-West Ethylene Pipeline at Elmwood Nursery, S Lanarkshire, there were two inter-cutting multiple cremation burials, one of them in a cist (Armit & Neighbour 1992). This may have formed part of a larger cemetery.…”