EAB2886 - Trial Trenching and Excavation 1998 - ARDOWNIE

The new double chambered souterrain, preserved underneath a deep deposit of topsoil which masked it from aerial survey, was to the north of the previously recorded souterrains. It was fully excavated with a concentrated environmental sampling regime ahead of the road improvements. The souterrain was curvilinear, of drystone construction, with corbelling. The larger of the chambers was 18.9 m in exposed length, up to 2.2 m wide at floor level, and up to 2.1 m deep. The smaller chamber was circa 10.2 m long, 2 m wide, and up to 1.6 m deep. The smaller was entered via a 'creep' from the main chamber. Both chambers had partially paved floors. The roofing was absent, but is was likely to have been stones sitting on the corbels rather than wooden for which no indications were discovered. Former ground surfaces noted during the excavation suggest that this roofing was possibly above ground level. A possible aumbry was discovered set into the northwest chamber. Due to it continuing under the road it was not investigated, but it resembled that discovered in the souterrain at Pitcur. Within the rubble core of the southern wall of the larger chamber a small, retouched quartz flake was found. A small section investigated in the larger chamber's floor revealed several animal bones and a possible fragment of Roman glass. Plans to remove the stone lining were found to be prohibitively expensive and the backfilled souterrain is preserved in situ under the new road surface. Other finds included two fragments of rotary querns, a saddle quern fragment, a sherd of Samian ware and an enamelled skillet-handle.