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Braehead Prehistoric Settlement Dig |
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By 2.30pm we had all regathered in the Burger King car park at the Braehead retail park. Our problem now was the exact location of the dig. Douglas, the only one of our number to have made a previous visit, was no longer with us. We knew where Ikea was, but it’s a huge construction site – where was the excavation? Fortunately at that moment some construction workers appeared for their lunch and Lorraine volunteered to quiz them. They were in a hurry, but they pointed out the general direction and told us to look out for portacabins. So off we set. It was drizzling, but we were in good spirits. After about 10 minutes we saw some more workmen, one of whom was much taken with my Manchester United shirt! Eventually we realised that we were only a few yards from the entrance to the dig, and we carried on into the enclosure. We were met by a large red-haired digger who directed us into the nearest portacabin where we were invited to view the display panels whilst we waited for our tour of the site.
Andrew began by explaining how the site had been discovered as a cropmark on one of the RAF’s aerial survey photographs, but that nothing had initially been done about it because there was no threat to the site. That threat had eventually emerged with the proposed construction of the new Ikea superstore. As part of the planning process, Glasgow City Council had insisted that an archaeological investigation should take place. First examinations were to establish whether there was in fact a site to investigate since, as Andrew explained, hundreds of years of ploughing can cause cropmarks to creep, meaning that the actual archaeology is not necessarily directly underneath the soil markings! However, in this case a star shape of trial trenches proved that everything was still in place. The shopping centre management then put the contract for the excavation out to tender, and eventually appointed AOC Archaeology to do the work. They made the decision to spend the amount of money allocated on employing as many diggers as possible. This recognized the fact that they had only a limited number of weeks in which to completely strip what was physically a very large site, as well as acknowledging that finds were likely to be few and far between – given the very acidic soil (it eats archaeology was Andrew’s considered opinion), so employing pottery and bone experts to sit and drink tea for weeks on end would probably be counterproductive!
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