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It is a much-cited refrain that the only way to understand Scottish hillforts properly will be to excavate them fully, reliant as we have been, for the most part, on very limited interventions. The total excavation, then, of Broxy Kennels – a multi-phase and potentially very long-lived multivallate fort near Perth, on the route of the new Cross Tay Link Road – presented an exciting opportunity to get to grips with issues of functional differentiation of space, duration, and status within the local landscape.
The fort survived only as a crop-mark. GUARD Archaeology’s excavations demonstrated the destructive effect of centuries of ploughing, with structures from only the latest phase of occupation surviving to any extent in the interior. The star of the show is undoubtedly the superb example of an eastern stone-lined souterrain, dug into the infilled early Iron Age ditch in a typically second-phase stratigraphic position. In artefact terms, the excavations produced a surprisingly limited material assemblage, even by Scottish earlier Iron Age standards.
The principal value of the excavation results perhaps comes in the analysis of the chronology of activity, based largely on modelled radiocarbon dates. This demonstrates the extent to which residual carbon from earlier activity was redistributed in successive contexts, with particular implications for the dates from the souterrain, which, if otherwise taken at face value, look suspiciously early. The final discussion seems not to pick up on this issue and places the souterrain in the early phase of activity, despite its clear superimposition over the multiphase ditches. Similarly, the late outer ‘palisade’ is dismissed rather cursorily as a modern feature owing to the mixed radiocarbon dates from its fill, but it does not seem to feature in the section drawings, so that it is difficult to assess. It is a little puzzling that the data is not interrogated more fully in the final contextualisation, given the important implications for understanding the taphonomy and chronology of plough-truncated forts.
This is a well-presented and detailed – if ultimately data-focused – report that makes a valuable and important contribution. It seems likely to become a reference point in future Iron Age settlement studies.
REVIEW BY GRAEME CAVERS
Broxy Kennels Fort, Souterrain and Surrounding Landscape, Perth
Kenneth Green
Archaeopress, £45
ISBN 978-1805832935
