REAP Update

We may not be digging, but there is a lot of furious activity going on inside these days.  Gordon has been 'washing cremated bone' (he does need a hobby....) from the site.  Provisional identifications suggest it is actually animal bone.  It is much more intensely fired than just normal burnt animal bone for cooking, so this adds an interesting puzzle to the mix.  We found burnt bone in almost every feature at Rhynie, so it is pretty important for us to figure out what it was doing there and what date it is.  Hopefully we have enough to secure a few radiocarbon dates to help us with the puzzle.
Meggen is off to Cardiff on Thursday to present Rhynie at the Cardiff Archaeology Research Seminars (http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/newsandevents/events/archaeology/cardiff-archaeology-research-seminars-2012-to-2013.html).

There was a little disappointment over the past month, too.  Gordon did some fieldwork at another site in Aberdeenshire with a palisaded enclosure with a timber hall inside (visible in an AP).  We had thought this might be a good parallel to Rhynie - until Gordon found post-medieval pottery at the bottom of the palisade trench! So an interesting addition to post-medieval rural archaeology, but it means Rhynie still stands out as one very unique Pictish place!