Dighty Valley - Archaeology Data Service

attending came from ihe Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St.
Andrews and Durham, and from Australia and the U.S.A. They
withstood the rigours of four weeks of almost continuous rain with
amazing gallantry, and results of considerable archaeological importance
were achieved.
A ditch whose existence only came to light at the very end of
the 1962 season was traced in 1963 and was found to belong to an
early Flavian enclosure, probably a semi-permanent fort laid out
by Agricola in the initial stages of his campaigns in Scotland
iuA.D. 79-84). Then followed the construction of a permanent
Flavian fort with a massive turf rampart and internal buildings of
timber and clay. Its occupation probably lasted until about the end
of the first century A.D.
An interval in the history of the Birrens fort-site then elapsed,
but an interval not as long as once was thought. The 1963 season
yielded evidence for an early second century occupation, most
probably in the reign of Hadrian.
Later in the second century, probably in the Antonine period,
an immensely strong fort was built at Birrens, over the remains of
earlier structures. It had a turf rampart set on a stone base, exactly
like the stone base of the Antonine Wall, and inside there stood
beautifully constructed stone buildings.
In A.D. 158 there took place a reconstruction of the second
century fort which involved the re-fronting of the great rampart,
the laying down of new streets and water-channels, and alterations
to the internal buildings. The secondary masonry was of inferior
quality.
The main section in 1963 was cut through the east rampart.
Besides other features it disclosed a circular oven for the baking of
bread or soldier's biscuit. It was over 6 ft. across, with a floor ot
neatly fitted flagstones, stone walls still standing to a height of about
2 ft. and part of the collapsed clay dome still lying on the floor. The
oven lay just under the modern turf, and was so well-preserved that
it must have been one of the latest Roman structures on the fortsite.
The pottery from it was all of the second half of the second
century A.D. It would appear that the life of the great Birrens fort
ended in that century.
RIGGHEAD SANDPIT, COU.IN From Mr R. B. K. Stevenson
NY/038750. Over 500 coins, the remains of a small jug and
a horn probably used as a stopper, were found on 9th August 1962.
Buried about 1554 it contrasts almost completely with the Linlithgow
hoard: bawbees of James V and Mary (350) have virtually
replaced placks, the English silver is Henry VIII (100) and the
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