www.archaeologyscotland.org.uk ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017

Archaeology of Medicine Bones, Bodies and Disease

Hospital Ancient buildings tools

Scottish soldiers CONTENTS Issue No 29 / Summer 2017 Got something to say? ISSN 2041-7039 The next issue will be on the theme ‘The History of Archaeology’, Published by Archaeology , editorial features and you are invited to submit Suite 1a, Stuart House, 04 14 articles relating to this. We also From the Director Scottish Soldiers welcome articles on general topics, Eskmills, Station Road, 17 Architectural Heritage of Scotland’s Hospitals community projects, SAM events Musselburgh EH21 7PB 20 Tel: 0300 012 9878 The Gardens of Holyrood and the fi rst Physic and research projects, as well Email: info@archaeologyscotland. news Garden as members’ letters. Members org.uk 05 are particularly encouraged to Scottish Charity SC001723 Heritage Hero Awards at the ‘O’ Factor 06 send letters, short articles, photos Company No. 262056 Playing the Past and opinions relating to Scottish 07 recent projects 20 Years of Scottish Archaeology Month archaeology at any time for 08 Summer School 2017 22 Mesolithic carnelian artefacts inclusion in our ‘Members’ Section’. Cover picture 09 Upcoming Events 24 Ben Lawers The Surgeons’ Hall Museum, 28 If you plan to include something © Surgeons Hall Museums Stobs Camp - ongoing research in the next issue, please contact Edited and typeset by features the editor in advance to discuss requirements, as space is usually at Sue Anderson, 10 people Spoilheap Archaeology Scottish Medieval Hospitals a premium. We cannot guarantee [email protected] 13 Soutra: Surgery and Superstition 30 60 Second Interview – Sue Anderson to include a particular article in a particular issue, but we will do our very best to accommodate you! Advertising sales 10 Advertisers should contact the 20 High resolution digital images (300 Archaeology Scotland offices in the dpi+) are preferred for publication. first instance. Please include copyright details and a caption. © Archaeology Scotland Copyright for text published in Contributions can be sent by post Archaeology Scotland magazine will to the Archaeology Scotland offices rest with Archaeology Scotland and 14 or emailed direct to the Editor the individual contributors. (see opposite) marked ‘ArchScot contribution’.

Views and opinions expressed within the New Statistical Account From Archaeology Scotland magazine are Anderson © S. Please send your contributions by not necessarily those of Archaeology 1st September 2017. Scotland, its Board or the Editor All copy may be edited for reasons

© Durham Univ. of length and clarity. A large print version of Archaeology Scotland is available on request. Please contact the

Archaeology Scotland office for further Ballin © T.B. 22 Find us on the Web information. www.archaeologyscotland.org.uk

@ArchScot

17 24 search Archaeology Scotland © Historic Environment Scotland © GUARD Archaeology Ltd © GUARD 2 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 3 editorial Heritage Hero Awards at the ‘O’ Factor in East Ayrshire elcome to this edition of the Archaeology Scotland r Wmagazine, where the focus is on the links between archaeology and medicine. o Medieval hospitals are an under-

t researched topic as Derek Hall’s article explains. To continue with the Soutra connection, the events c with the Surgeon’s Hall Museum, Dig it! 2017 and others sound exciting and innovative and worth a look once they get going. The

re tale of the 5,000 soldiers who weekend, Waverley Mall Time were captured at the Battle of Trail, the Portmoak family day Dunbar and the detective work at Loch Leven and Gardening around the burials found at the Scotland show at Ingliston to name Palace Green in Durham give us but a few. We also ran a Castles a valuable snapshot in time, and and Caves Tour of which was there’s an insight into the work of led by Peter Yeoman. our very own Editor, Sue Anderson, and what can be learned from I hope to see some of you osteo-archaeology. There’s at the various events over the Rebecca Barclay receives our partnership certifi cate from East Ayrshire’s Head of Education Alan Ward, alongside Graham Boyd, East Ayrshire’s Heritage Education Development Offi cer © Archaeology Scotland much more to read about in this Summer and do save the date for Scotland’s Community Heritage issue including an article on the n 10 May we attended the unit achieving Heritage Hero Awards. architecture of Scottish hospitals Conference later in the year. These two days (Friday 10th and ‘O’ Factor in Kilmarnock. The intention is that all young people and Scotland’s first Physic Garden Organised by East Ayrshire’s in East Ayrshire have the chance to Saturday 11th November) will O at . Away from our Learning Outdoor Support Team, gain a Heritage Hero Award. attract speakers and delegates medical theme, there are articles this annual event celebrated and East Ayrshire has been doing on Mesolithic carnelian artefacts from beyond Scotland so that championed the outdoor learning fantastic work promoting heritage from the Tay estuary and an we can all learn from community activities undertaken by their young education alongside outdoor update on the Ben Lawers Project. heritage projects in other parts of people. It was a fantastic opportunity education. This includes creating the UK and further afield and will to talk to educators about what we In other news, it certainly has town trails for their schools (temporarily) drop the traditional offer and hear about their ideas. highlighting key historic places, been a busy spell with our annual bar on heritage professionals We were able to visit stands run by providing relevant historic maps, Summer School weekend; the the young people and their teachers taking the main stage. As part photos and relevant information and Rhind lectures; the Archaeological outlining their outdoor learning suggesting appropriate activities. of the Year of History Heritage adventures. Our votes on the best Research in Progress Conference and Archaeology this is going to Their young people have been projects were tallied for an award engaged in photography projects, and the Festival of Museums all be one of the showcase events in May. We have been out and ceremony that rounded off the event. research into World War 1 soldiers of the year and more details will We were also recognised as partners and exploration of cemeteries and about with our hands on activities be online soon on the Historic in outdoor excellence. (grinding grain using quern castles. It has been inspiring to work Environment Scotland website. We have been working closely with with them, and we can’t wait to see stones; simulated excavations; East Ayrshire and the Heritage Hero what projects they’ll be undertaking Heritage Hero Awards ‘Past-Port’ Awards. At the time of writing, six next.

From the Di From and our artefact investigation kits) Eila Macqueen Award projects have been complete NEWS SCOTLAND ARCHAEOLOGY at the Stirling Castle Big History Director with 262 young people from eight Kate Fowler, Archaeology Scotland different schools and their support

4 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 5 news

the formation of Queen’s Park Football help us to support a number of different club and the 135th anniversary of the first audiences. In particular the project will England vs Scotland match at the West give disadvantaged young people an of Scotland Cricket Ground, it is also the opportunity to learn about their past, take 50th anniversary of the winding up of Third part in fun activities and perhaps become Lanark Football Club. involved more in the future. Working in So what will we be doing? We have a partnership will enable us to reach young number of plans to engage people and people interested in sport in areas that investigate sporting heritage throughout have high levels of disadvantage, such the year. We will be supporting Queen’s as health inequalities and unemployment Park to celebrate their 150th anniversary amongst working age individuals. Against in July and our excavations and Scottish this backdrop, opportunities for personal Archaeology Month launch events will take development amongst young people are place in the last week of August. To follow limited and aspirations low. The Playing the this up we will be working with the Scottish Past project will give us the opportunity to Football Museum and Sporting Memories help with some of these issues. The eerie remains at Cathkin Park, and (right) Third Lanark Badge at Cathkin to generate information about football Park © Archaeology Scotland in and prepare an exhibition to If you have ever wondered about celebrate our findings. Scotland’s sporting past why not drop us a line and get involved? One of the great things about this project is that it has enabled us to link Phil Richardson, Adopt-a-Monument, Playing the Past up with some fabulous partners who will Archaeology Scotland hose of you who have ever stepped and get them to see the connection between off the train at Mount Florida in sports and heritage, and we will do this by TGlasgow’s southside on your way to focusing on the sporting heritage of Cathkin watch Scotland play at Hampden may not Park. Sports are by far the most popular 20 Years of Scottish Archaeology Month be aware that you are surrounded by a rich subject in the UK. A survey In June 2016 t was twenty years ago when sporting past. Thanks to the recent work by showed that nine of the top ten most viewed Archaeology Scotland took the Hampden Bowling Club we now know TV programmes were sports events (the Iover the job of running the Cathcart and District railway line on 10th was an episode of East Enders). But National Archaeology Days which you travelled, cut straight through the people don’t associate Sports with heritage (NAD) in Scotland. Shortly very first Hampden Park in 1883 at the point even though Scotland is known worldwide afterwards the Council for where the railway passes Hampden Bowling as the home of golf and host to the oldest British Archaeology decided Club and goes under Queen’s Drive. Whilst football club in the world. Scotland has to move NAD to the summer the current (third) Hampden dominates the much to offer by way of its rich and diverse while Scotland kept them in views as you walk around the area, there is sporting heritage and we want to get people September under the new much more to see. Of course, the Queen’s to engage with their sporting past. We see name of Scottish Archaeology Park recreation ground had seen football the opportunity to bring together these two Month (SAM). That first year, games before Queen’s Park FC established strands, to offer an exciting addition to Year 41 events took place in a Tay Landscape Partnership ‘Fun Day’ on Moredun Top hillfort © George Logan/TayLP the first Hampden but the story doesn’t of History, Heritage and Archaeology 2017. handful of locations. Last stop there. A second Hampden was built As such our work at Cathkin will act as the year saw over 300 events Heritage and Archaeology of History, Heritage and on the other side of the Cathcart Road in launch event for Archaeology Scotland’s in almost every corner of in Scotland hundreds of Archaeology people’s vote 1884 which, in turn, became the home of Scottish Archaeology Month this year. We Scotland. Every time we think organisations who are not for six ‘hidden gem’ heritage Third Lanark Football Club at Cathkin Park are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for we have reached the limit normally involved in heritage sites, this year’s SAM is in 1903. The park still holds the remains a ‘Stories, Stones and Bones’ grant to make of how many people can are now putting on events looking to be the biggest one of the pitch and the terracing, creating an this happen. participate in SAM we set a from lectures to publics yet, with the most diverse eerie monument to Scotland’s glory days of The Year of History, Heritage and new record. archaeology digs. From an range of events. There will be football history. Archaeology 2017 is apt for researching We anticipate 2017 to be excavation of the lost stands something for everyone. Our Playing the Past project aims to Scottish sporting heritage as not only does no different. With this year and terraces of a football Doug Rocks-Macqueen, SAM engage people with their sporting heritage the year mark the 150th anniversary of being the Year of History, pitch in Glasgow to the Year Co-ordinator 6 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 7 news Archaeology Scotland Summer School 2017 and Glen Urquhart

Strat Halliday speaking to participants at Buntait © Archaeology Scotland he 2017 summer school was based and also the chambered cairn at Corrimony. at the Garve Hotel between 19–22 Nearby, concealed beneath a corrugated- Upcoming Events TMay. The hotel is situated about 25 iron roof, and within an unremarkable miles north-west of on the edge building in the farmyard is the unusual Young and old alike fi nd quernstones fascinating! © Archaeology Scotland of a study area that included parts of Black survival of the finest cruck-building in Isle, Glen Urquhart and Strathglass. There Scotland. At Ormond Castle we saw the he summer is always a busy time for quite a few new members who see the link were 75 participants including guides and remains of the 12th-century fortifications of the AS team as we take advantage of, to more recent heritage. Stobs Camp Project speakers, and all but a few were resident in a type rare in Scotland, and in Strathglass, Thopefully, better weather to pursue our will be beginning the survey of the huge the hotel, where the evening lectures were we visited Erchless motte, the top of which own projects and attend external fairs and site (volunteers welcome contact info@ held. was used as a private burial ground for shows. After a very successful three days archaeologyscotland.org.uk) . at Gardening Scotland where our ‘dig’ site The programme commenced with dinner the chiefs of Clan Chisholm. The itinerary Adopt-a-Monument and Scottish in the Big Back Garden was attended by on the Friday evening and finished after also included another rare survival – the Archaeology Month kick off during breakfast on the Monday morning with Victorian dairy at Guisachan home farm, hundreds of children and their families we were straight into the hectic activity that is August and we will have an open dig and an optional visit to Knock Farril vitrified constructed in Alpine style with spired celebratory event at Cathkin Park (old Third fort with Strat Halliday as the guide. There the Royal Show. Our stand and ventilator on the ridge. The interior has Lanark Football ground) in Glasgow (see were two days of site visits to a range of a coloured terrazzo floor and coloured ancient skills area is always well visited by some of the 150,000 people who come ‘Playing the Past’ on p.6) and as we move field and upstanding monuments partly leaded window glass. Our guides were to the show over four days. Meanwhile at into September hundreds of events will be selected to encourage on-site discussion Anne Coombs, Marion Ruscoe and Roland Stobs Camp, south of Hawick, we will be highlighted on our website for a huge range between guides and participants about Spencer-Jones (all from NOSAS), Eve Boyle hosting a metal detecting rally over the area of activities across the whole of Scotland. their interpretation; are there not possible (HES), Strat Halliday, and Geoff Waters. A of the POW camp which should raise some Stobs Camp Project will be leading some Pictish barrows among the hut circles and lecture was held each evening after dinner; fascinating finds. walking tours as part of the Borders clearance cairns at Buntait? Is the ‘motte’ in the speakers were Alan Thompson (coauthor Kiltarlity churchyard a stepped Norse-period Anne Coombs), Eve Boyle (co-author Simon Next up we are hosting a ‘come and Heritage Festival too. assembly mound, a medieval execution site Green (HES)) and Gordon Noble (University try’ area at the Science Centre As the nights begin to draw in the season or all of these? of Aberdeen). during 1–3 July as part of the Year of HHA of talks and conferences gets underway with The area is rich in passage grave sites celebrations. Then on 22 July we will have a some already lined up for towns across the and we visited Carn Glass – a recent The 2018 summer school will be based stand at National Museum of Flight Airshow somewhere in the Scottish Borders between Borders and our AGM and Members’ Day is restoration project by the North of Scotland at East Fortune in East Lothian where we planned for 21 October in Ardrossan. Archaeological Society (NOSAS) in 18–21 May. might be slightly overshadowed by the Red association with Archaeology Scotland – Geoff Waters, Summer School Director Arrows display team but we usually attract Dianne Swift, Development Manager 8 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 9 features Types of hospital Scottish Medieval Hospitals Poorhouses alms being monies or services donated to support The earliest hospital that can be classified as a the poor and indigent. The earliest almshouse Poorhouse is the one at North Berwick in East recorded is at Lauder (1175x1189) in the Scottish Lothian which is first recorded in 1154 (Cowan Borders the latest in Stirling (1637) (Cowan and and Easson 1976, 186). This must be qualified by Easson 1976, 184; RCAHMS 1963). the fact that it was also set up to aid pilgrims and, given that it is located on the main pilgrimage Leper hospitals route to St Andrews from the south, this may have Leper hospitals are first documented in Scotland been its main function. in the 12th century, with Adniston in the Scottish Parliamentary legislation in Scotland concerning Borders possibly being founded in 1177, and the poor began in the 15th century. Early statutes the hospital of Greenside in Edinburgh being the were mostly for the suppression of idle beggars, last documented foundation in 1591 (Cowan but gradually two important principles emerged. and Easson 1976). As late as 1427 an act of the All parishes were to be responsible for their own Scottish parliament restricted begging by lepers poor, but only certain categories of poor were to their own premises and to outlying districts; proper objects of poor relief. A statute of 1579, they were forbidden to beg in church, churchyard, which remained the basis of the poor law until or in the town. And at the end of the following 1845, firmly established these rules. Its twin aims century, the lepers at Edinburgh were only were that ‘the puyr aiget (aged) and impotent permitted to beg at the gate of their hospital, a personis sould be as necessarlie prouidit for’, and task that they undertook turn and turn about. This that ‘vagaboundis and strang beggaris’ should is of interest, as the excavations at St Nicholas be ‘repressit’. Those entitled to relief through age, Farm, St Andrews located a gateway in one of the illness or otherwise, were to go to the last parish hospital boundary walls which would have led out in which they had lived seven years, or failing that onto the old road to St Andrews from Crail, an the parish of their birth. The latest poorhouse for ideal location for a ‘begging’ gate (Hall 1995, Soutra Aisle Monastic Hospital © Surgeons’ Hall Museums which there is documentary evidence is at Culross in Fife (1637). 58). As late as 1530, an Act of the Scots Parliament he medieval hospital is a poorly Foundations and dedications Almshouses stipulated that “no manner of Lipper persone, researched institution in Scotland. Only he earliest hospital in Scotland, founded in Almshouses were, and still are in some parts man nor woman, fra this tyme forth, cum amangis two sites at St Nicholas Farm in St T T1144, appears to have been St Leonard’s of Britain, essentially charitable housing that uther cleine personis, nor be nocht fund in the Andrews and Soutra in the Scottish Borders in St Andrews, which initially functioned as a was provided to enable people (typically elderly kirk, nor fleshe merket, nor no other merket within have ever been excavated. There are currently hospice for Pilgrims and Travellers. Another people who can no longer work to earn enough this burghe, under the payne of burnyng of their no excavated graveyards associated with possible candidate for an early foundation to pay rent) to live in a particular community. They cheik and bannasing off the toune“ (Richards these institutions and finds relating to medical is the hospital at North Queensferry which were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at 1977, 69). It is still a matter of some debate practices are very rare. may represent one of the ‘dwellings’ built by those from certain forms of previous employment, whether many of the inmates of these hospitals In the late 1990s / early 2000s SUAT Ltd Queen Margaret for pilgrims and the poor; or their widows, and were generally maintained actually had leprosy; there would seem to be a carried out a Historic Scotland funded project a land endowment to this institution could be by a charity or the trustees of a bequest. good chance that any disease that affected the in order to compile a gazetteer of Scottish a grant of either Malcolm III of 1085x1093 Almshouses were a European Christian tradition, skin would have been diagnosed as such. medieval hospitals. The four years of fieldwork or Malcolm IV of 1153x1165 (Cowan and and data collection involved in this project Easson 1976, 189). Although the dedication poor harvests and possibly the effects of the protector for the leper hospitals of Scandinavia produced a final list of 178 medieval hospitals for this hospital is not known, there must be plague (Lamb 1995, 205). (Richards 1977, 8–9). in Scotland, an increase of 24 when compared a very strong chance that it was connected with the Chapel of St James (patron saint Assessment of the identifiable dedications Place name evidence with a list published by Cowan and Easson of travellers) whose ruins are still visible in shows that the most popular appears to be in 1976. This figure represents almshouses, he most obvious place name element that Helen Place. Although Cowan and Easson to the Virgin Mary (15) and Saints Leonard is usually assumed to indicate the former bedehouses (almshouses for bedesmen or T list St Nicholas in St Andrews as an 1128 (12) and John (10), with St Mary Magdalene location of a medieval hospital is ‘Spittal’. Of women), poorhouses, leper hospitals, hospices foundation, 1178 is the first definite record (6) also well represented. Amongst the most the 178 potential hospitals listed in Scotland, for travellers and pilgrims, hospitals for the of this leper hospital (Hall 1995, 48). The unusual hospital dedications are those to St 23 of them have this place name element and care of the sick, and a sizeable group whose greatest number of documented foundations Germain in East Lothian, St Cuthbert in both twelve of these are sites where it is not obvious function is no longer identifiable. The three appears to be in the 15th century when 52 East Lothian and the Scottish Borders, and that a hospital ever existed. In the case of most common types of hospital in medieval hospitals come into existence. This sudden St Anthony in Leith and . Only one Spittal at Auchterderran in Fife there is existing Scotland appear to have been poorhouses increase may reflect a variety of factors, Scottish hospital, in Dunkeld, is dedicated to documentary evidence that indicates that (39), almshouses (26) and leper hospitals (23). including an apparent decline in the climate, St George, a saint who was a very popular land in this parish was once owned by Trinity 10 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 11 features hospital in Edinburgh, and Cowan and Easson Conclusions state that no other evidence for a hospital he Scottish medieval hospitals gazetteer can be found (see below). The same is true Tproject laid the foundations for the of Spittalfields in Perth and Kinross where the continuing study of this under-researched lands were once owned by the 17th-century facet of medieval life in Scotland. The limited King James VI hospital in Perth. This shows excavations of such sites have providing that this place name element should not tantalising glimpses of the sort of information automatically be used to identify these sites that might be recovered. The intriguing work and that further research is always needed. of Dr Brian Moffat at Soutra on blood-letting In an urban setting it is often possible to and other medical practices still requires to recognise street names that relate to the be corroborated from work at other important former location of some of these hospitals. Scottish hospital sites but is an important To take Perth as an example, St Catherine’s reminder of the sort of evidence that might hospital is recorded as both a street name and present (Moffat 1989, 10). More importantly, a new retail park, St Leonard’s by a street and the gazetteers will hopefully prove to be useful Soutra: a bus station, and St Paul’s by a close off the tools in the development control process. Old High Street and a 19th-century inscription The lack of substantial standing remains above the ‘101 chip shop’! in Scotland and the absence of adequate Surgery & Current state of preservation surviving documentary evidence means that the sort of analysis that has been carried out Superstition tanding remains of hospital buildings are on the likes of St Leonard’s Hospital, York Sfew and far between in Scotland. The in England cannot be undertaken (Cullum Inside Surgeons’ Hall Museum © Surgeon’s Hall Museums; inset © Dig It! 2017 remains of St Magnus Spittal in Caithness 1993, 11–18). Whilst continuing development can still be traced as grass covered wall lines pressure will allow for further excavation of s part of the Visit Scotland Year of communities as well as medieval travel and are protected as a Scheduled Ancient medieval hospital sites in Scotland, it may be History, Heritage and Archaeology, and superstition. Attendees of the ‘Soutra: Monument (SAM no 5413). The best surviving the case that a properly designed and funded ASurgeons’ Hall Museums have joined Surgery & Superstition’ events programme example of a maisondieu can be found at research excavation is the only way of making forces with Dig It! 2017, Mercat Tours and will be able to join us to explore collections Brechin, and there is a surviving fragment of substantial progress. Scottish Traditional Art and Culture Scotland of early surgical tools, try their hand at arch from the hospital of St John at Arbroath (TRACS) to deliver an exciting multi- concocting their own medieval elixirs Derek W. Hall built into the inside face of one of the bay disciplinary Heritage Lottery-funded project; inspired by early apothecary practices, delve windows on the ground floor of Hospitalfield ‘Soutra: Surgery & Superstition’ in October into the world of medieval superstitions House. SUAT’s survey of the Scottish Borders Further reading 2017. This project will include a series of and attend talks on early surgery and the revealed that the farmhouse of St Leonards Cowan, I and Easson, D, 1976, Medieval public events, workshops, performances and excavation of the Soutra Aisle site. near Lauder includes a stone built into its Religious Houses: Scotland. southern wall with an inscription that reads: talks inspired by the 12th-century Soutra ‘Soutra: Surgery & Superstition’ will Deus est fons vitae, I thirst for the vater of lif. Cullum, PH, 1993, ‘St Leonard’s Hospital, Aisle hospital in the Scottish Borders. York: the spatial and social analysis of an culminate in a large multi-disciplinary There must be a strong chance that this stone Augustinian Hospital’, in Gilchrist, R and Soutra Aisle monastic hospital provided event; ‘A Cabaret of Pestilence ’which will originates from the hospital that formerly stood Mytum, H (eds) Advances in Monastic medical treatment and hospitality to local showcase the project’s highlights over on the site. The survey of the Lothians has Archaeology (Oxford: BAR British Series 227). communities, travellers and pilgrims for the several venues as part of the Museums indicated that many hospital sites may now be Hall, DW, 1995, ‘Archaeological excavations best part of 500 years and has direct links at Night festival between 27–29 October occupied by churches and graveyards, and the at St Nicholas Farm, St Andrews 1986–87’, to Surgeons’ Hall Museums early medical 2017. Full information on all ‘Soutra: potential for surviving remains on these sites Tayside Fife Archaeol. J. 1, 48–75. must be fairly high. collection. ‘Soutra: Surgery & Superstition’ Surgery & Superstition’ events will be Hamilton, J and Toolis, R, 1999, ‘Further will dig into this history and work with local published in August 2017 and tickets Good cropmark evidence exists for the excavations at St Nicholas Farm, St Andrews’, hospitals of Arrat in Angus and Soutra in Tayside Fife Archaeol. J. 5, 87–105. artists, musicians, archaeologists, historians available from Surgeons’ Hall Museums Midlothian, and when these are combined Lamb, HH 1995 Climate, History and the and storytellers to deliver public events as website thereafter. with the excavated evidence from St Nicholas Modern World. well as creating work inspired by Soutra Farm, St Andrews, it is possible to get a very Moffat, B 1989 The Third Report into Aisle and Surgeons’ Hall Museums early Find out more good idea of what the layout of some of the Researches into the Medieval Hospital at medical collections. In addition to this, larger hospitals was like. The apparent large Soutra, Lothian/Borders Region, Scotland we will also be working with professional Museum – http://museum.rcsed.ac.uk size of both St Nicholas and Soutra must be (SHARP) tour guides and storytellers to involve local www.facebook.com/surgeonshallmuseum due in some part both to proximity to major RCAHMS,1963, Stirlingshire: an inventory communities, allowing them to tell the tales www.twitter.com/surgeonshall routeways – Soutra, for example, was used as of the ancient monuments, 2v, Edinburgh, of their heritage. a way station by the invading English army – 289–93, No.231 www.visitscotland.org/business_support/advice_ and to the apparent self-sufficient nature of Richards, J, 1971, The Medieval Leper and his The upcoming public events will draw on materials/toolkits/yhha.aspx both communities. Northern Heirs. themes from early medicine and Scottish

12 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 13 features

were aged between 13 and 25 years. Only Scottish Soldiers two individuals were older: one man aged 36–45 years and another aged over 45 years. from the Battle of Dunbar A group consisting of young adult men and teenagers is typically associated with conflict. Andrew Millard supervised isotopic analysis of their teeth, returning results consistent with a Scottish origin for most individuals, and narrowed down the most likely date to the mid 17th century. Examining the soldiers’ bones and teeth suggested many had suffered poor nutrition and/or disease in childhood. Such episodes of ‘stress’ can disrupt tooth development, preserving evidence for interrupted growth as defects known as ‘enamel hypoplasia’. This was seen in nine of the thirteen individuals with teeth preserved. Many had experienced repeated episodes of disrupted growth attested The lower jaw of a young adult male with large cavity and abscess beneath, and deposits of calculus © Durham University by the presence of multiple enamel defects. n 3 September 1650, an English New England. Many descendants of those sent Seven individuals had subtle bowing of Parliamentarian army led by to New England survive today. their long bones, suggesting they may have suffered childhood rickets. Rickets develops in OOliver Cromwell faced a Scottish Although it was assumed that the most children if the body is not exposed to sufficient Covenanting army led by General David likely place of burial for the prisoners who Leslie outside Dunbar, East Lothian. The sunlight, which it needs to produce Vitamin D died in Durham was Palace Green (between – essential to form strong bones. A connection Scots supported the claims of Charles II to the cathedral and castle), there were no the thrones of Scotland, England and Ireland between rickets and enamel hypoplasia was contemporary accounts of the burials and no One of the mass graves early in the excavation © Archaeological on the condition that he upheld the Solemn suspected: one adolescent had slightly bowed convincing evidence for their presence had Services Durham University League and Covenant and would establish upper arm bones suggesting they had suffered been found. That changed on a wet November rickets while crawling in infancy, combined with Presbyterianism in England. Responding to response to an unknown infection, mild afternoon in 2013, when human remains enamel hypoplasia in parts of the teeth that this threat, Cromwell invaded Scotland to trauma, or metabolic disease, and this was were discovered during an archaeological develop at this age. pre-empt a Scottish invasion of England. The watching brief in advance of the construction seen in a third of the individuals. Only two battle was short, won decisively by Cromwell’s of a new café at Durham University’s Palace Three adults had cribra orbitalia – porosity adults were affected, each with healed bone more experienced and better-trained troops. Green Library. Archaeological excavation, led in the roof of the eye sockets that typically on their leg bones. However, a greater variety Faced with thousands of prisoners and short by Richard Annis of Archaeological Services develops during childhood. The cause is of bones was involved in the seven adolescents on supplies, Cromwell decided to march Durham University, uncovered two partial debated – various forms of anaemia have affected, and five had bone deposits of a type been proposed, as well as scurvy, chronic around 5,000 captives over 110 miles south mass graves containing between 17 and which indicates the inflammation was active infections, or carrying large numbers of to Durham. Three thousand arrived there – the 28 individuals. The graves were located at at the time they died. It is possible that the intestinal parasites. rest having escaped or died along the way – the edge of the castle grounds in an area adolescents were suffering from scurvy. and they were imprisoned inside the castle and occupied by service buildings in the 17th New bone formation on the original bone cathedral, which had been closed as a place century. The burials appeared disordered surfaces could indicate an inflammatory Nine individuals had suffered sinusitis, out of worship. and no traces of clothing or possessions were of the twelve whose maxillary sinuses could be observed. This could suggest exposure to Sir Arthur Hesilrige, placed in charge of the found. The graves had been disturbed and pollution, smoke, dust or allergens. prisoners, maintained they were provided with truncated by a large pit and the foundations of food, coal, straw for bedding, and medical later buildings. Unsurprisingly, since most individuals were care. However, historical sources recount that Research led by Chris Gerrard established young, there was little evidence for joint after reaching Durham around 1700 prisoners that these graves almost certainly contained disease. Only the male over 45 years old had died in total, with 1600 dying within the first the remains of some of the Scottish soldiers developed osteoarthritis in a few of the joints 30 days. The survivors were sent to various who had died in Durham in the autumn of of his spine, ends of his clavicles (collarbones) places to work or fight for the Commonwealth, 1650. All the adults whose sex could be and his left hip. Two of his vertebrae had also including South Shields, the Fens, Ireland, and determined were males, and the majority Teeth with enamel hypoplasia © Durham University fused together. 14 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 15 features Follow our blog All individuals had skeletons. Others had other https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/ The Architectural Heritage of deposits of mineralised unusual wear probably caused research/projects/europe/pg-skeletons/ plaque (dental calculus) on by using the teeth as a tool. Twitter: @durham_uni #ScotsSoldiers their teeth indicating poor Injuries were scarce. Only oral hygiene. Calculus can two potential healed fractures Scotland’s Hospitals aggravate the gums leading were identified (in a rib and a the bone had fully dried to periodontitis, and this finger bone), two adults had out – perhaps a spade-mark was seen in four individuals. probably suffered soft tissue caused when the graves were Seven had developed tooth injuries, and another two had truncated. decay, and cavities were each fractured a tooth. One Identification of the human seen in 5.7% of the teeth young man had a shallow remains discovered in Durham – a higher than expected healed cut above his left eye, as some of the Scottish frequency for such a young but aside from this there was soldiers captured after the group. Three individuals had nothing to suggest they were Battle of Dunbar provides dental abscesses, probably a experienced veterans. This a rare opportunity. Most complication of tooth decay. is consistent with historical of the time we don’t know All these conditions can evidence that by 1650 the exactly when people died – predispose to the loss of teeth Scottish army contained cemeteries can span hundreds during life, but only one of large numbers of young of years – but here we had a the two older adults had lost inexperienced new recruits. relatively precise date of death a single tooth. It seems likely Injuries that occurred and we know most were born that the lack of ante-mortem around the time of death were between 1625 and 1635. tooth loss reflects the young also absent, fitting with reports We also know something of age of most individuals. the circumstances leading that Cromwell released the Engraving of the north elevation of the fi rst Edinburgh Royal Infi rmary, designed by William Adam around 1738. The hospital, situated up to the deaths of these Evidence for habitual severely wounded after the just off Infi rmary Street, was demolished in 1884 © Courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland (Copied from Vitruvius Scoticus) activities was also captured battle. It also seems unlikely individuals. Their remains in their teeth. Two individuals that anyone seriously injured provide insight into the lives hen we think of a hospital, most for different illnesses, groups within the of the ordinary men and boys had crescent-shaped wear would have survived the of us would probably imagine community or parts of the body. Each patterns in their front teeth recruited into the Scottish march to Durham. One young one of the great Victorian general of these produced a slightly different indicating they had smoked army in the mid 17th century W adult male had linear damage hospitals, such as the old Edinburgh Royal clay pipes. This was important – valuable since few skeletal architectural response. to his cranium most likely Infirmary, with its old-fashioned Nightingale in helping to date the assemblages of this date exist, Scotland has a particularly rich medical caused after death but before wards. These long wards, where the particularly in Scotland. heritage with a long and distinguished patients’ beds were placed opposite each Research continues, with an history of academic excellence. The Royal exhibition planned in Durham other, have lost their appeal to modern planners and designers, though are often College of Surgeons in Edinburgh has, in 2018. The Scottish soldiers indeed, some claim to being the oldest were recently commemorated, remembered fondly by both patients and nurses. From the latter’s point of view they medical incorporation in the world, dating and a plaque now marks the back to 1505, while in the 18th century courtyard where their remains were easy to supervise, and from the former, Scottish universities established themselves were discovered. one never felt forgotten or out of sight. as important centres for the study and However, hospitals come in many different Anwen Caffell and Pam practice of medicine. Famous Scottish Graves, Department of guises and sizes. Since the first ‘modern’ medical institutions appeared in the 18th students and medics include Archibald Archaeology, Durham Pitcairne, James Syme, Sir James Young University century there have been hospitals with as few as three beds, to vast complexes Simpson and Sir Alexander Fleming, and housing many hundreds. Apart from general Joseph Lister. There were also associations hospitals there were cottage hospitals, with Scotland’s medical history which asylums for the mentally ill, poorhouses were also less salubrious and undoubtedly (most of which cared for the sick as well the most infamous pair associated with as the poor), isolation hospitals for people Edinburgh’s medical past was Burke and suffering from infectious diseases, and a Hare. For a brief period they sold fresh The project team and the commemorative plaque © Durham University raft of specialist hospitals which catered corpses for dissection. 16 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 17 features

institutions that were funded design began to change, responding by voluntary subscription. to new understanding about the way in Subscribers were granted which infections spread and a belief in privileges dependent the beneficial effects of sunshine, fresh upon the amount of air and cleanliness. This new thinking their donation. The most saw the introduction of the pavilion-plan generous would be entitled hospital with its cross-ventilated wards, and to a place on the governing separation of different patients, whether board, but all would be able surgical from medical in a general hospital, to recommend candidates or measles from diphtheria in an isolation for admission. Most patients hospital. By the end of the century an ever were very poor – anyone greater complexity of ancillary buildings with enough money would was needed – a boiler house to provide The outstanding mural sequence in the Mortuary Chapel at the have procured medical heating and hot water, kitchen, laundry, Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh by Phoebe Traquair, dating to attendance within their own operating theatres, X-ray room, outpatients’ 1885. © Crown Copyright: Historic Environment Scotland department, offices, committee room, home. Even operations were largely driven by the redundancy of older A view of the rounded balconies of generous proportions at the Royal Alexandra Hospital conducted on kitchen tables. chapel, mortuary, and a nurses’ home. in Paisley, dating to 1897. By the end of the 19th century taking light and fresh air was buildings. Innovative plans continued to be part and parcel of advances in medical treatment. The planning of hospitals at this date Hospitals were founded In the 20th century hospitals became the focus and new ways of treating patients refl ected this change © Historic Environment Scotland by physicians but also by less the sole preserve of the very poor, were reflected in the buildings’ architectural a variety of philanthropic encouraged by developments that made form but also included some striking The first official medical be abandoned once an individuals, wealthy operations safer and more successful, modern designs. The new super-hospitals institutions appeared almost epidemic subsided. merchants and through the such as antisepsis and anaesthetics. The of the 21st century, such as Glasgow’s state began to intervene more formally, three hundred years ago, By the early 18th century efforts of guilds, institutions new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, providing sanatoria for people suffering in the early 18th century. the study of medical science and public bodies. Truly foretells of the end of specialist hospital Before that time medical municipal hospitals came from tuberculosis and introducing maternity buildings with the introduction of co-located was gaining momentum, and child welfare schemes. Some areas care was mostly conducted but outside London there later, in the wake of public services where the philosophy is to treat within the home, and legislation concerning public developed initiatives in municipal health patients from cradle to grave. were no hospitals in Britain care which foreshadowed the National ‘hospitals’ were more where patients could be health, poverty and mental Many hospitals with special architectural commonly understood to Health Service. In Aberdeen in the 1920s observed in great numbers. illness. and historic importance now have be places of refuge for a joint hospitals scheme was devised to This was also the dawning In the second half of recognition and protection through listed the poor, or schools such bring together the Royal Infirmary, maternity of the Enlightenment, when the 19th century hospital building status and, where no longer in use, as Donaldson’s Hospital. and children’s hospitals and the University humanism engendered a medical school on one site. have seen imaginative conversions to new Before the Reformation, homes, places of learning and hotels. monasteries often included desire to improve the human During the Depression years of the 1920s a small infirmary, though lot. The time, therefore, and 1930s many voluntary hospitals were Dawn McDowell, Deputy Head of this would usually have been was ripe for establishing financially stretched, with fund-raising a Designations, Historic Environment Scotland reserved for members of the hospitals for the sick poor, constant effort. By 1948, the National order. especially in towns or cities Health Service was established and the where medicine was being Few of these medieval opportunity was there to modernise Find out more studied. It is significant that institutions survived into the buildings and rationalise services. The To find out more about historic hospitals, you can the first general hospital to late 16th century. Epidemics enormous advances in medical science in search on our Heritage Portal for sites which are be founded outside London of infectious diseases or the 20th century have changed hospital designated as either listed buildings or scheduled plague, from the Black was in Edinburgh, where requirements in so many respects. Transport monuments http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/ Death in 1348 to the Great the Royal Infirmary began too has played a part, with public transport You can also read our book: Building up our Health: Plague in 1665–6, led to humbly enough in a rented and then car ownership making the logistics the architecture of Scotland’s historic hospitals, pest houses being provided. house in 1729. of hospital locations very different from pre- available as a free pdf download: https://www. The Royal Infi rmary in Edinburgh, with a These were temporary These marked the war days. historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/ Nightingale wards plan dating to the late places where the infectious beginnings of the voluntary Hospital buildings of the later 1960s, publications/publication/?publicationId=2b015c24- 19th century, has been converted to luxury d638-44cf-bc90-a58400f0d936 could be isolated from hospital movement, fl ats and is now known as the Quartermile. 1970s and into the 1980s were erected as the healthy, and would meaning charitable © Historic Environment Scotland part of a new wave of hospital construction 18 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 19 features The Gardens of Holyrood and the First Physic Garden and plants were yearly sent hither from abroad America was the ultimate source for many of and the students of medicine got directions to the shrubs. Sutherland’s disposition of the plants send them from all the places they travelled to’. ‘was according to the most natural and rational Sibbald also collected plants within Scotland. Method, and according to the best and latest One source was the ‘curious Garden’ of Patrick authors of Botanie, and particularly our most Murray, Laird of Livingstone, a keen gardener Learned and Incomparable Countreyman Doctor who exchanged seeds and information with Morison’. In this way the Physic Garden was other gardeners throughout Europe. Sibbald instrumental in the introduction of new species admired his collection of nearly a thousand across Scotland. plants, many of which were to find a home in the While the Physic Garden was being developed Physic Garden. Sibbald also visited the sites of on the area of the north garden, the palace former monasteries and their gardens, looking itself was being restored and extended. The for plants suitable for medicinal use. On his visit buildings to the east of the palace belonging to Inchcolm Abbey on its island in the Forth, he to the Bishop and Dean of Edinburgh, former noted, ‘In the Garden adjacent to the Monastery, monastic properties, were acquired by the Crown I found the female Paeonie, bearing seed, and demolished. This allowed the opening up of common Borage and Pellitorie, the dwarf Elder a vista to the east where a new Privy Garden was and Echium flore albo, Solanum dictum bella planned. A parterre and alleys with gravel walks A view of the gardens at Holyrood from John Slezer’s Theatrum Scotiae, ‘The North Prospect of the City of Edenburgh’, engraved Donna and malva Pomilaflora albo’. around 1710. SC1245640 © Historic Environment Scotland were laid out in the early 1680s in a symmetrical By 1676, it was obvious that the Physic linear pattern, extending well beyond the present he later 17th-century history of the gardens The purpose of the garden was to supply fresh Garden was too small for its purpose, and a plot palace gardens. These gardens became in a at the Palace of Holyroodhouse was deeply plants for medical prescriptions and to teach adjacent to the Trinity Hospital, on the site where sense a public park and, in 1691, regulations Tinfluenced by the same major political and medical botany to students. The preparation of Waverley Station now stands, was added that on the proper conduct of visitors were imposed social events that had a profound effect on remedies derived from plants formed a major year. This, like George Heriot’s Hospital, was declaring that it was forbidden to walk on the Scotland as a nation. The changes carried out part of medical practice at this time. Many new in the control of the Edinburgh council. It was grass or exercise dogs unless on lead, while there may be summarised as a development plants had been introduced to Europe and their leased to James Sutherland for nineteen years by putting or playing golf was forbidden except to from a garden designed for the monarch around study was becoming regularised. The Surgeon the council and placed in his charge. Sutherland those resident in the palace itself. his palace, to a garden intended to improve the Apothecaries Company in Edinburgh had a had worked for Sibbald and Balfour at Holyrood The establishment of the Physic Garden at well-being of the nation, whether through the garden planted with medicinal plants from 1656 and was later to become the Professor of Botany Holyrood and the use of the gardens at George increase of knowledge, of scientific method and on the site of the present St Patrick’s Church in in the University of Edinburgh. Heriot’s Hospital and Trinity Hospital for the the improvement of medicine or the provision of the Cowgate, and at Heriot’s Hospital ground In 1683 Sutherland published the Hortus cultivation and study of medicinal herbs were healthful areas in which the citizens of Edinburgh was set aside in 1661 for the planting of ‘all Medicus Edinburgensis: or, A catalogue of the important elements in the growth of Edinburgh as might walk, talk and take exercise. sorts of physical, medicinal and other herbs such plants in the Physical Garden. This was to be a centre for medical studies. They were a source During the period of the Civil Wars and the as the country can afford’ and set down that it sold at the shop of an Edinburgh seed merchant of local pride and English and foreign visitors to Commonwealth, the gardens at Holyrood would should be open to anyone who wished to study and at the Physic Garden itself, indicating that Edinburgh were taken to see them as one of the seem to have been run by gardeners appointed the plants. this garden was already a place visited by the sights of the capital. The support of the gardens by the Crown. They supplied vegetables and Balfour and Sibbald were appointed Visitors inhabitants of Edinburgh and beyond. Sutherland by the town recognised that they were also an fruit for sale to the inhabitants of the city and to the Physic Garden. Both men had travelled considered the garden in relation to other physic amenity for its citizens providing open space for presumably to the garrison installed by Cromwell extensively in Europe pursuing their study of gardens in Europe and reckoned that it was on healthy recreation and exercise away from the in the palace itself. medicine. Sibbald had stayed in Paris for nine a level with most of them for the number and increasingly crowded Old Town. In 1670, ten years after the restoration of months where, as he wrote, ‘I studied the plants the rarity of its plants. He had used his foreign Marilyn Brown the monarchy under Charles II, the Physic under Junquet in the King’s Garden’, and he had correspondents to acquire seeds and plants Garden, designed for the cultivation of medicinal stayed with the great Scottish gardener, Robert from the Levant, Italy, Spain, France, Holland, plants, was instituted by the physicians, Sir Morison, in Blois at the garden of the Duke England and the East and West Indies, as well Find out more Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour. In his of Orleans, brother of Louis XIII. Morison was as collecting them through his own travels Brown, M., 2012, Scotland’s Lost Gardens, autobiography Sibbald wrote: ‘Doctor Balfour appointed the first Professor of Botany at Oxford in Scotland. He stressed the importance of RCAHMS and I first resolved upon it, and obtained of in 1669, as well as physician to Charles II. the garden for the teaching of apothecaries’ A new physic garden is being developed at John Brown, gardener of the North Yardes in The assembling of plants for the new Physic apprentices. The Physic Garden also served as Holyroodhouse and will be opening in 2018: the Holyrood Abby, ane inclosure of some 400 Garden was carried out in part by using the a nursery from which plants could be purchased https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/about/future- foot of measure every way. By what we procured Visitors’ network of botanical contacts across – in 1691 the Earl of Morton, who owned programme/news-and-features/the-historic-physic- from Livingstone and other gardens, we made a the world. Sibbald writes: ‘By Dr Balfour’s Aberdour, bought a collection of fruit trees, roses garden-at-the-palace-of-holyroodhouse#/ collection of eight or nyne hundred plants ther.’ procurement, considerable pacquets of seeds and shrubs at a cost of £47-0-0 Scots. North 20 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 21 recent projects

knife, four end-scrapers, two burins, fourteen pieces with edge-retouch and one hammerstone. The finds formed an elongated scatter with several small concentrations, and it Five carnelian cores – two single-platform cores, two irregular cores, and one core fragment © T.B. Ballin is possible that the finds represent several visits by a band of hunter- gatherers who, over a Mesolithic carnelian artefacts number of years, returned from the Tay estuary to a favoured spot on their movements through their n important very little is known about the somewhat water-rolled, annual territory. assemblage of Late early prehistoric settlement suggesting that, following Eleven microblades and microblade fragments in carnelian © T.B. Ballin Mesolithic artefacts of the Tay floodplain and the transgression, a large Carnelian, which is A brown and translucent, is a was recently discovered estuary in general, and part of the floodplain was member of the chalcedony material in connection that they made an effort by volunteers working that this is the first known submerged. However, almost with ‘beach combing’ than to obtain carnelian, rather near Freeland Farm, a few Scottish assemblage based all lithics from Freeland family. This group of lithic raw material also includes quarrying, as small nodules than chalcedony, agate kilometres south of Perth. predominantly on the Farm are fresh, indicating of carnelian would have and jasper, indicates that The work is part of the procurement of carnelian, a that the finds may have chalcedony (bluish-grey), agate (with concentric, been available as scattered they preferred this form of Early Settlers fieldwalking semi-precious gemstone. been deposited after the pebbles in the local lavas, chalcedony to other forms, project of the Tay Landscape transgression, and the fact occasionally coloured The site is located on the bands), jasper (red and and subsequently eroded and it is likely that the brown Partnership, an HLF-funded southern side of the Earn, that the lithics still form out of the local bedrock and colour had special meaning project led by Perth and a relatively dense scatter opaque), and bloodstone a tributary of the Tay. This (green, occasionally with washed down to the shores to them, for example as Kinross Heritage Trust. watercourse is now a narrow suggests that the site had not of the estuary. a means of identifying been disturbed by it. As one red spots), and apart from The ploughsoil assemblage stream, but in the Late bloodstone (which is only The Tay carnelian themselves as belonging to includes 175 lithic artefacts, Mesolithic/Early Neolithic narrow microlith and two a specific social group. They burins date the assemblage found on the Isle of Rhum), has fairly poor flaking approximately two-thirds of period it would have been these raw materials are all properties, and like Southern may have seen themselves, which are carnelian, with approximately 1km wide, to the Late Mesolithic period and been seen by other (i.e. pre 4000 cal BC), present in the Tay estuary, Uplands chert it is riddled the remainder being flint, due to the Main Holocene and in the eastern parts with internal fault planes, hunter-gatherer groups, as chert and quartz. These finds Transgression. Some lithic and as the Main Holocene ‘those with brown tool kits’, Transgression is dated to of Angus and Fife. The which make it difficult to are important for several finds recovered elsewhere just like people on Arran approximately 5630–5440 Montrose area in Angus is control the production of reasons, such as the fact that in the project area are may have seen themselves cal BC, this suggests a date well-known by lapidarists for example microblades. as ‘those with black tool kits’ for the Mesolithic site and its for its beautiful agates, However, as in the case of (pitchstone), and people on assemblage of c.5600–4000 and at the mainly Early Southern Uplands chert, this Rhum as ‘those with green cal BC. Mesolithic site Morton near was probably not a major tool kits’ (bloodstone). The lithic collection the North Sea coast of concern, as this raw material Fife, chalcedony formed a was locally abundant – if This is probably an recovered at the site during example of what the the project’s 2016 field notable proportion of the a piece broke during lithic assemblage. production, you simply American anthropologist season includes, among Polly Wiessner defined as It is presently uncertain picked up a new nodule and other things, seventeen ‘emblematic style’. microblades and narrow how the prehistoric hunter- had another go! blades, nine single-platform gatherers of Freeland Farm It is difficult to say how Torben Bjarke Ballin, Lithic cores and irregular cores, procured their carnelian, the Mesolithic people of Research, and Sophie Nicol, one edge-blunted microlith, but it is more likely that Freeland Farm perceived Perth & Kinross Heritage Three end-scrapers in carnelian © T.B. Ballin one crescent-shaped backed they found their lithic raw their carnelian, but the fact Trust 22 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 23 recent projects

trace of human occupation re-occupation of marginal settlement from higher Ben Lawers during the next 250 years. fringes for agriculture elevations in Perthshire, as The re-occupation of Eilean is characteristic of the it did elsewhere in Europe. Breaban Crannog sometime expansions in settlement- The evidence from Ben after AD 420 was followed pattern associated with Lawers suggests that this by a sequence of other better weather conditions occurred in the decades occupation events, such during the Medieval immediately prior to 1300, as isolated, ephemeral Optimum. This phase but some use of sites may features sealed under of expansion is evident have continued into the later buildings at Kiltyrie. in other upland areas of 14th or possibly even the Excavation at Balnahanaid Britain, particularly the 15th centuries. What form revealed more structured Scottish Borders, north-west this use took is less than evidence in the form of England, Wales and more clear, but it may have been long cists and graves, generally across north-west seasonal. which were contemporary Europe. The Ben Lawers Seasonal exploitation with the early phase of sites offer a glimpse of of the upland zone on occupation of Kiltyrie, and settlement forms during Loch Tayside was certainly for the first time allowed the Medieval Optimum, apparent from evidence the sample excavation of especially between AD recovered at shieling an annat site in Scotland. 1150 and 1300. These sites investigated during Annat or annaid sites have find comparisons elsewhere the project. Whether attracted little detailed study An archaeological landscape in time in Perthshire and bear transhumance was practised in archaeological terms similarities in layout before this on Loch Tay is and probably represent Trench 3 (Iron Age hut circle) under excavation by volunteers at Croftvellich in 2002 © GUARD Archaeology Ltd to contemporary sites not clear from the physical church sites. The cemetery excavated in the Western or documentary evidence, esearch by GUARD Archaeology any such policy. The combined factors at Balnahanaid certainly Isles. Towards the end of the has just been published, presenting of topography, hydrology and geology provides a tantalising view although the term ‘shieling’ Rthe results of the Ben Lawers Historic encouraged the use of particular points in of the period and hints 13th century, the climate first appears in documents Landscape Project, a multi-disciplinary the landscape through time. at the working of silver, began to change and it is of the late 12th century project carried out between 1996 and 2005 Locations that were suitable for early possibly in crucibles, a craft likely that the colder and in the Highlands. The in the Central Highlands of Scotland. inhabitants to hunt, build houses or that might be associated wetter conditions led to a archaeological evidence The Ben Lawers Project had wide-ranging bury their dead would also be the best with a church of some retraction of permanent indicates that sites such as aims based around developing a project for future generations to use in similar standing. Whatever its that would enable a greater understanding ways. The project, throughout its nine import, Balnahanaid was of the last thousand years of human history years of existence, revealed evidence for abandoned sometime after across an area of upland landscape on the this palimpsest of activity on a regular AD 780, although the north side of Loch Tay. It became apparent basis. The chronological depth of activity reason is unclear. from the very first excavation season that the exposed during the project thus allowed From the mid 12th laudable goal of restricting the project to the processes of change, expansion and century, a prolonged phase the second millennium AD would be almost retraction of settlement to be understood of occupation becomes impossible to achieve. The very nature of within a longer timeline of human apparent within the the landscape which formed the study area, occupation. landscapes of Lawers. It with its limited flat agricultural land and By the end of the 2nd century AD, began with the reoccupation steep slopes stretching towards the massive abandonment of hut-circles, homesteads of Kiltyrie, which lasted until peaks of Tarmachan, Lawers, Ghlas, An Stuc and crannogs on Loch Tay had occurred, AD 1300 if not as late as and Meall Greigh, would conspire to defeat and the project found no archaeological the mid 15th century. The Location Map defi ning the project area and key sites © GUARD Archaeology Ltd 24 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 25 recent projects

18th century changes in has obscured any trace of of peddlers and travellers in throughout the rest of the construction materials 18th-century use. This was this process. By the 1820s 19th and into the 20th and the detailed and certainly the case for many the occupants of most of the century. The remnant historic meticulous record-keeping of the sites investigated as outfield sites were beginning landscapes we see today of the Breadalbane estate part of this project. Even to struggle; the system along the north shores of enabled the project once in cases like Balnasuim, on which the estate had the loch are testament to again to find evidence for the later use of the site placed such high hopes was that demographic change. the lives of the common and subsequent robbing of failing. The evidence from John Atkinson, GUARD people across the arable stone left few traces of the the excavations supports Archaeology Ltd zone on Loch Tayside. building’s use during the the supposition that failure Farquharson’s map of 1769 1700s. accelerated during the is particularly characteristic Find out more In contrast, the expansion 1830s and the new system Ben Lawers: An Archaeological of this capturing of detail. of the settlement pattern into Early medieval long cist half-excavated in 1998 at Balnahanaid © GUARD Archaeology Ltd had all but collapsed by the Landscape in Time. Results The settlement distribution the former outfield areas middle of the century. The from the Ben Lawers Historic mapped by Farquharson Meall Greigh may have from the small, sub-circular after the introduction of shrinking of the settlement- Landscape Project, 1996–2005, provides a snapshot of by John Atkinson, has recently been used on a seasonal or oval turf bothies to the the General Lease in 1800 pattern and decline in basis from c.1400 until elongated, sub-rectangular the form and layout of the provides an entirely different been published by the Society of arable production were Antiquaries of Scotland as Scottish the late 18th century. This huts with their central pre-Improvement landscape body of evidence. These inevitably matched by an Archaeological Internet Report is supported by entries in entrances and stone-lined, prior to the wholesale outfield sites were generally inexorable fall in population 62 [http://www.socantscot.org/ the Breadalbane papers turf-battered walls. The changes initiated by the of a single phase, used for publications/sair/]. from the late 16th century evidence from Ben Lawers General Lease c.1800 little more than a generation onwards. For much of this indicates that both forms and the abandonment and accompanied by period these documents, were concurrent features of the infield/outfield datable material culture. together with the excavation of the landscape, and the system of agriculture. Sites like Kiltyrie provide a results, provide the only differences between them Ironically, although we can unique if fleeting view of evidence for the later may reflect social forces differentiate the locations early 19th-century life in medieval and early post- at work in the pastoral of up to 65 18th-century the Highlands, and some medieval occupation of zone. The evidence also settlement sites from the sites can even be related to Loch Tay. highlights these structures’ occupied during the 19th particular individuals. The The excavation lack of permanence, from century, it is not so easy to analysis of the ceramic and results also provide an the makeshift roofing disentangle the archaeology glass assemblages from interesting contrast with the arrangements to the lack of of the physical remains and these sites has permitted published body of work on material culture and even, relate this to an underlying a clearer understanding transhumance sites. Much in some cases, the apparent chronology. There is a clear of how people lived, what of the work published to absence of hearths. In lack of datable material for vessels they owned and date relates to the Western dating terms the evidence 18th-century occupation when such objects became Isles. The dataset produced suggests that the tradition horizons. This, combined an essential part of everyday as part of the Ben Lawers was certainly active in the with the later occupation life. Contrasting these Project therefore offers the 16th and 17th centuries and of sites (post-1769) and assemblages with material first comparative material for probably came to an end the wholesale remodelling from other sites, such as the whole of the highland towards the end of the 18th of some settlements has Balnabodach on Barra and massif. It also provides century, although occasional created a complex mixture Easter Raitts in Badenoch tangible evidence for the use may have extended of 18th- and 19th-century has begun to address issues beyond this. function and chronology of cultural traits. In most of trade and commerce over Late medieval marginal settlement site (Trench 16) being excavated in 2005 at Kiltyrie a range of structural forms, By the beginning of the cases this later occupation large distances and the role head dyke © GUARD Archaeology Ltd 26 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 27 recent projects Swedish exercises and football. Both the civilian and soldiers stobs camp camps have plenty of ground for exercise and ongoing research games, each ground being, I should say, about 150 Transcription of FO (Foreign Office) 383 The huts are lighted by electricity yards square. Prisoners Miscellaneous (General Files) 1073- and are heated by stoves and were There is a schoolroom 4143. Dated 1915 No. 106 quite warm, in fact I thought them which was quite full of stuff y, but the Teuton, as we know, men when I saw it, and Research conducted by Gordon Barclay has prefers a close atmosphere to fresh lessons go on in there unearthed this extract, a report written for air. There was plenty of room between all day in Spanish, the beds, about 3 or 4 feet. They had French and Russian. the Foreign Office by a Colonel Anderson tables in and several had Some of the prisoners at the camp who inspected the camp in 1915. This gives The Canteen (one to pianos. each camp) is good and Prisoners are not charge of a well known us a wonderful insight into the social and There are no proper Recreation Huts, complete, and is run by allowed out of the camp Edinburgh doctor who is political history of the time and highlights how and the Commandant told me he was the Army & Navy Stores, except for very special attitudes have changed over 100 years. The trying to get one built for each half who have their own a Territorial Major. I of the camp. reasons and then under representative assisted asked him if he could transcription is verbatim. Smoking is allowed everywhere, which military escort. by prisoners. It is very suggest anything needful helps make the atmosphere very thick Discipline. The whole Report on Stobs Internment Camp by well stocked and the and he said nothing was in the huts, where the men play cards camp is paraded twice a Colonel W.C. Anderson prices reasonable. 7½% on required, had all he and amuse themselves all day. day for roll call. The the profi ts are paid to wanted. The hospital is On Saturday, October 30th, 1915 I The food was very good. The meat is usual punishment for the Commandant’s fund. separated by a barbed visited this Military Internment Camp principally chilled beef, the bread off ences is from 24 hours The distance from Hawick wire fence from the rest at Stobs and saw the Commandant, was of good quality and provided by a cells and onwards by the and the hilly roads make of the camp. There is Colonel Bowman, who, being very busy Contractor in Hawick. The butcher’s Commandant. The cells are it necessary to charge a himself, detailed an offi cer to show me shop, bakery and all the kitchen new and heated by steam very little sickness. round and to explain all details to arrangements, also the stores for little more than in other pipes. Board beds and In summing up my me. potatoes, vegetables etc were very camps more conveniently blankets are allowed but impressions of this This camp is situated on very high complete, and clean. situated. no mattress. Men in cells camp I should say that moorland ground about 800 feet above The Post Offi ce arrangements were also The prisoners are put are put on No. 2 diet, everything has been sea level, about 5 miles from the very good, each camp (civilian and to work at making roads which consists of:- done for the comfort town of Hawick in Roxburghshire. It soldiers) having its own post offi ce and others kinds of Breakfast 8oz. bread and convenience of is a bleak and very cold spot, and the and parcels offi ce, under the charge of useful work. Civilians Dinner 1 pint the prisoners; they slope of the hill on which the huts one of the offi cers who is assisted by are not compelled to stirabout made up of 2oz. have plenty of ground work. The pay is one are built makes walking very diffi cult prisoners. All parcels are opened in oatmeal, 2oz. Indian corn for exercise and good on account of the mud when there has halfpenny an hour and the presence of the addressee. (maize), ½lb potatoes. food, and the men, both been rain, as it was on Saturday when work lasts for 6 hours Each of the compounds A, B, C, and Supper 8oz. bread. soldiers and civilians I saw it. daily. D has its own wash-house with plenty Only water allowed to appear contented and even There is accommodation for 4,800 Saturdays and Sundays drink. of tin basins and buckets on shelves cheerful. The hospital men, but there are not quite that about 2½ feet high and with 16 taps are holidays. Hospital. This is very arrangements could not number interned at present. The camp with cold water. There are boilers Religious services, complete and appears be improved. The only is divided into two parts which again outside the washhouses where hot water Roman Catholic and admirable. There are 150 divided into two compounds each. They can be procured between 9a.m. and Protestant, are held beds of the ordinary fault, to my mind, was are numbered A.B.C.D. A and B are on 2p.m. every Sunday in huts. light spring mattress the situation of the one side of the main road running Each compound has a laundry The electricity for hospital type. There camp. It is high up on through the middle of the whole camp, washhouse with hot water and a good the camp is supplied by are 6 wards containing a cold, bleak moor, and and here the civilian prisoners are drying room adjoining. There is for its own power station 25 beds each. A ward is conditions there during interned, and they are wired in with each half camp a bath hut where the and consists of three a complete hut with one the winter will be very strong wired fences all round. C and D men can get shower baths. Hot and cold dynamos. good plunge bath, hot and severe, but as the huts compounds are for military prisoners water is provided and 40 men can bathe Visitors are allowed, cold water, and inside are well warmed and who are similarly wired in. Sentries at a time. This is open all day. both male and female, water closets, separated lighted, and as metalled are posted all around. Each compound The sanitary arrangements are of the once a month, and the by a passage and doors roads and boarded can accommodate 1,200 men who are usual military camp pattern, buckets interviews take place from the actual ward. An footpaths are being made housed in wooden huts which hold 50 or and earth cleaned every morning. I in the presence of an operating hut is nearly throughout the camps offi cers. They are supposed 60 men each. considered them adequate. complete and will be and round the huts, no The men sleep on plank beds and have to last for 15 minutes, opened soon. The kitchen There is a barber’s tent, doubt the discomforts the usual palliasse of straw and three bootmaker’s shop, printing offi ce, but owing to the distance arrangements are quite of cold and mud will be blankets. I saw some white private carpenter’s shop and a library with from the station this is good and there are two blankets being aired and was informed plenty of English and German books. generally extended. ranges and boilers. The minimised. that the prisoners could have them in The camp is run by the prisoners Clothing is issued when hospital is for the whole (Sd.) W.C. Anderson, Col. addition. themselves and they have bands and necessary. camp and is under the 28 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 29 people 60-second Interview Sue Anderson, Spoilheap Archaeology

We, at Archaeology Scotland, know you time for the bones to be involved (unless the head was preferable! Or it may not have because you edit this magazine for us. What disease is one that affects the bones from been through choice, I suppose. Does the many of our readers might not know is that the start). Diseases like the Bubonic plague evidence suggest that people survived this you also study and analyse human bones and other deadly infections leave no trace ordeal? retrieved from archaeological contexts. What in the skeleton. So severity is not always the Yes, there are many examples of skulls with got you interested in such a gruesome area key to seeing palaeopathology, longevity healed trepanation scars from sites all over thatthat, but how people managed to live with of archaeology? is. Chronic illnesses like osteoarthritis are the world. I have seen several examples healed injuries which, even though not life- When I was still at school, I visited our local the easiest things to spot, but some of the from English sites of Neolithic and Anglo- threatening, would have made their daily life library and found a book called Bones, major long-term infections, like leprosy and Saxon date. There are modern-day survivors so difficult – they must have had help from Bodies and Diseases by Calvin Wells. I was tuberculosis, can leave their mark. Major in African countries, where trepanation is relatives or friends. One of the men from already interested in archaeology and loved trauma such as fractures and dislocations still practised, and published examples of The Hirsel, for example, suffered from a visiting historic sites, but that was the book are also very obvious normally, as are these include a man who had almost half dibilitating spinal disease called ankylosing that made me want to take up archaeology unhealed wounds which would have been his skull removed! It must have been a spondylitis, in which the spine gradually as a career. I studied at Durham and after the cause of death. There are changes in difficult operation for both the patient and fuses into an immovable lump. He suffered my degree, I was able to take on a research disease prevalence over time. For example the ‘doctor’, given the amount of blood from osteoporosis, probably due to lack of degree studying primarily the 330 skeletons rheumatoid arthritis is thought not to have that can be generated when cutting through movement. With these conditions, he must from The Hirsel, Coldstream. really affected people before the post- the outer layers, and particularly without have had help to survive. medieval period, and syphilis may have anaesthetics. Wow, that sounds like a great collection to What about skeletal evidence of started – coincidentally or not – after study – plenty of data with 330 skeletons. So, getting back to your experience at The occupations? Have you examined bodies Colombus visited America. It’s not a site I am familiar with, however, Hirsel, do you recall whether the bodies where it is obvious the person did a can you tell us a bit about it? Interesting. Is there any way to learn about conformed to the theory that everyone died particular job, e.g. longbow archers have young in the medieval period or did you The site was a medieval churchyard in how diseases were treated by studying the over-defined right shoulders? have anomalies? the grounds of The Hirsel, at one time the skeleton? It’s actually very difficult to determine any stately home of Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Occasionally it’s possible to say that a bone The population there conformed to a typical kind of activity based on skeletal changes. My professor, Rosemary Cramp, excavated has been properly set following a fracture, pre-industrial rural group. There was a high Even osteoarthritis may be caused by there for several seasons in the 1980s but it if it has healed in the proper alignment for proportion of very young deaths (infants other factors than simply ‘wear and tear’. was only recently published. The skeletons, example, suggesting a degree of medical and young children), fewer deaths of older Injuries consistent with blade cuts might typical of a rural medieval and later knowledge. There is also evidence for children and teenagers, and then a large suggest a soldier, but can we be sure that community, had a lot of signs of pathology surgery in the form of trepanation (cutting number of deaths in the young to middle- the individual wasn’t simply a civilian in the including osteoarthritis and trauma. a hole into the skull – possibly as a cure aged adult range, with few older adults wrong place at the wrong time? Context (50+ years) surviving. It’s difficult to age is everything in interpreting this type of That would have been a great learning for severe headaches or mental illness) or amputation. Severe diseases which involve adult skeletons accurately though, and evidence. experience. I know you then went on to it’s quite likely that some people survived some form of paralysis, like poliomyelitis, work as an osteo-archaeologist. You have into their 70s and 80s, although they were And lastly, is this a job for the faint-hearted? can only be survived if the individual had probably studied human bones from a wide probably rare. No, I think you have to be able to look at range of historic and prehistoric periods. I help, which hints at care. But most of the the bones with a sense of detachment. I remember reading somewhere that relatively knowledge we have about the way people Personally, I have found it astonishing couldn’t do my job so easily if I empathised few diseases affect the skeleton, and they were treated medically in the past comes that ‘dark ages’ skeletons can have such too much with the suffering of the long- have to be pretty severe for any effect to be from historical records, which really only wonderful teeth (no sugar of course). Does deceased. noticeable. Is that true? And, also, do the give us clues about the Roman, medieval anything still amaze or confound you about diseases and pathologies that people suffer and later periods. bones you have analysed? from vary over time? Ah, yes, trepanning was going to be my next I’m often amazed at the kinds of injuries Find out more The problem with the severest of diseases is question. It’s quite hard to think of an illness people were able to survive without the aid See ‘Resources’ on www.spoilheap.co.uk that they kill quickly – that means there is no so bad that having a hole drilled in your of modern medical knowledge. Not only 30 – ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2017 – 31 To celebrate Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Scotland’s Archaeology, this year’s conference will be a two day event, with two key aims: • to showcase the exemplar work of community-led Community Heritage heritage in Scotland, the UK and beyond – both of individual projects and of wider initiatives Conference 2017 • to learn from community-based best practice outside Friday 10th and Saturday 11th November Scotland Strathclyde University, Glasgow For more information, visit www.archaeologyscotland.org.uk

Scotland’s Community Heritage Conference is a partnership of Archaeology Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland, with contributions and support from heritage bodies across Scotland and beyond.