By Richard Brennan, Project Archaeologist
As with all great archaeological discoveries this story begins with the final product, the 100% excavated feature in all of its glory, something uniquely special. You can see a large hole dug into the ground with a longer and shallow shaft continuing to the west (and some painted sticks for decoration)!
The mystery feature
If at first look you excitedly whispered to yourself that this is obviously an Iron Age corn dryer or some kind of oven or even a kiln, then, like us, you are unfortunately mistaken. On the surface, the feature appeared to have a flue-like wing (to transfer heat) continuing to the west and a possible oval wing (to dry grain or bake ceramics) to the east. If it was a corn dryer or oven then one would expect accompanying integral structural components, to you know, house the feature, store the goods, and keep out animals and what not. Our Go Pro shot of the immediate surrounding area shows no evidence for any post holes or beam slots. So just what did we have here if not an oven, kiln or corn dryer structure?
GoPro shot of the feature
We half sectioned the “flue” wing and quarter sectioned across the “oven”. I worked on the “flue” and south facing section and my colleague in the north facing section of the pit. It quickly became apparent that our feature was probably neither a corn dryer nor oven nor kiln, and in fact most likely a large waste pit, with some sort of raking channel…I know, right.
So why do I think this? Well, there was no baked lining to the feature (the clay geology if baked would appear a reddish orange colour). The feature contained
- Fragments of dark reddish orange ceramic building material (CBM)
- Sherds of mid Iron Age dark greyish brown pottery
- Discarded fragments of burnt and unburnt animal bone
- Fragments of animal bone with patterns of rings etched into the bone
- Occasional iron objects
- Very occasional copper alloy materials.
- Fragments of slag
The vast majority of the finds were heavily worn, fragmented and obviously discarded away as broken pieces of rubbish within the remnants of the charcoal deposits. Lastly, the stratigraphy of the waste pit indicates a possible prolonged use and that it was open for some time as phase after phase of dumping had been taking place. Had it been a corn dryer or oven we might expect a single dump event as its use came to an end.
Although all this is still speculation until the expert reviews come through, what at first we thought might have turned out to be an Iron Age corn dryer, oven or even possible kiln is probably ‘just’ a waste pit.