Monument record MHG52953 - Household midden pit, 12-16 Queensgate, Inverness

A subcircular pit was identified during a watching brief on water pipe laying works. The pit cut through (and therefore postdates) a compacted clay surface (Feature 2) , and extended outside of the excavated trench. The upper layer of the cut and thus the fill had been disturbed. It appeared that the top half of the cut had been truncated and the fill had mixed with overlying deposits and was redeposited over the rest of the in situ deposit. The redeposited fill is dark brown gravelly silt-soil with an abundance of charcoal, as well as fragments of 19th century ceramic and glass fragments throughout it.
The bottom half of the feature was undisturbed, containing a dark brown silty soil fill with high charcoal content and numerous burnt sandstone fragments and cobbles. It also contained bone, shell, ceramic, and glass fragments. One medieval pottery fragment and possibly late medieval glass fragments were recovered, together with one white clay pipe fragment. It seems likely that upper layer truncation of the pit occurred during the 19th-20th centuries – perhaps during the construction of Queensgate.
The feature is interpreted as a household midden pit, of uncertain date but possibly medieval. <1>

<1> McCullagh, C, Peteranna, M and Wood, J, 09/2009, Inverness Streetscape Project Water Main Renewal: Archaeological Watching Brief - Volume 1: Text, Feature 1 (Text/Report/Fieldwork Report). SHG24542.