Rhynie, Aberdeenshire

Rhynie, Aberdeenshire
The Craw Stane with Tap o'Noth hillfort in the background (Photo courtesy of Cathy MacIver).

Saturday 19 August 2017

REAP2017 is underway

And we're off....

This year's excavations began in earnest yesterday (wet) and we have three! trenches (wet) this year. At the Craw Stane is what would be considered by our usual standards a wee trench barely big enough to swing a Rhynie Man axe. This trench is targeting the outer ditch (windy, wet) and is now being cleaned by a small, dedicated (wet) team.
A slightly more unhinged group is up on a hill investigating a fort at Wheedlemont. This is an evaluation (windy and even more wet) to ascertain the character of the site and hopefully obtain some dating evidence to see if it might be contemporary with our Pictish complex at the Craw Stane and down by the village of Rhynie.
A really unhinged (soaking wet, hail) team is up on the glorious hill fort at Tap  o'Noth and this is another evaluation to determine what excavation might be like up there (probably wet, definitely windy) and to investigate the potential for possible future work and chance of obtaining dateable materials.
So a very different type of year for us here. We hope to be able to update you on all three sites fairly regularly and to gradually update some of the behind the scenes pages here too with links and more information.
Daily tweets and Facebook posts can also be found on the Northern Picts project account/pages for those of you needing to get a fix and see pictures of us in action on an hourly basis. Some of you may have spotted Dr GN's snazzy blue Pictish prince catsuit courtesy of Rhynie Woman in honour of the gala day yesterday.  What has been seen, cannot be unseen!
Despite a bit of a wet start, we hope for some dry spells over the next few days and that lots of great archaeology will be revealed.

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