King's Seat, Dunkeld: Excavations of a Royal Centre of the Southern Picts, 2017-21

Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Notes

Introduction – David Strachan with a contribution by Łukasz Banaszek
Background to the project
Location: geology, topography and rivers
King’s Seat fort
New discoveries: the southern enclosure and other information from airborne LiDAR data
Project aims and research agenda

The excavation results – Cathy MacIver with a contribution by Derek Hamilton
Introduction
The site and excavation methodology
The excavation results
Conclusions

The small finds and animal bone – Ewan Campbell, Andy Heald, Andrew Morrison, Derek Hall, Dawn McLaren, Rob Engl, Daniel Bateman, Amy Halliday, and Lore Troalen
Introduction
E ware
Later Medieval and later pottery
Money-box
Glass
Copper alloy
Lead
Iron objects
Non-ferrous metalworking
Iron-working evidence
Worked antler
Chipped stone
The coarse stone
Unworked animal none
Conclusions

King’s Seat in context: the early medieval of the area small – David Strachan with contributions by Richard Tipping, Mark A. Hall, and Oisín Plumb
Introduction
Land use and land use change in the early medieval period
Prehistoric and early medieval sites in the landscape
Early medieval sculpture and portable antiquities in and around Dunkeld
The historical background of King’s Seat

Discussion and conclusions – David Strachan, Cathy MacIver, and Andy Heald
Introduction
Upland and lowland relationships: defining the nature of settlements, buildings, royal sites and their locations, and the relationships between them
Routeways: contact, communication, and control
High-status sites
Economic networks
Material culture
Periods of transition
Conclusions: a royal seat and the capital of Atholl
References

Appendices

Appendix A: Archaeological sites in the environs of Dunkeld and the wider area

Appendix B: Early medieval sculpture from Dunkeld and its environs

Index

About the Author

David Strachan has over 35 years’ experience of curatorial field archaeology in Wales, England, and Scotland, working at both national and county level. As ‘county archaeologist’ with Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust over the last 25 of these, he has led several research projects, often delivered through community archaeology. These include the recovery of the Late Bronze Age Carpow logboat, excavation of early medieval longhouses in the uplands of Glen Shee, and Iron Age forts around the Tay estuary, also published by Archaeopress.

Cathy MacIver is a Project Manager at AOC Archaeology Group and has worked in commercial archaeology since 2009, having managed numerous fieldwork projects. Recent excavations include extensive Romano-British settlements in England, multiple Scottish Iron Age and early medieval hillforts and later prehistoric settlement at Meigle. In addition to working with developers, Cathy has worked closely with HES and the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen on research and field school projects with a particular focus on prehistoric to early medieval sites.

Andy Heald is the Managing Director of AOC Archaeology and has worked in Scottish archaeology for over 20 years, previously as a Curator of Early Historic and Viking collections at National Museums Scotland. He has a PhD in Non-Ferrous Metalworking in Iron Age Scotland and has published widely on artefacts of the first millennium BC and AD in national and international journals. Recent publications include Caithness Archaeology: Aspects of Prehistory and artefact reports in Clachtoll Broch. Andy is also the Chair of the Scottish Strategic Archaeology Committee.