Monument record MHG56078 - Bronze Age occupation - Culduthel, Inverness

Evidence for occupation in the Bronze Age was exposed and recorded at Culduthel, Inverness, during an evaluation in 2005 and excavation in 2007 by Headland Archaeology. Radiocarbon dates and pottery analysis indicated that it could be attributed to two phases. The earliest phase was represented by natural deposits containing Beaker pottery (a small spread and a deposit within a palaeo-channel) and the later by three small roundhouses. The Beaker assemblage related to domestic (or at least non-funerary) activity and may have represented two episodes of activity suggested by the fact that material from the palaeochannel fill produced a radio-carbon date of 3910+/-30 BP. Unfortunately there was no evidence for structures of this period. Three small roundhouses were dated to the Middle to Late Bronze Age, though they did not appear to be contemporary. Houses B and C were the best preserved and were situated on flat ground in an area containing over a hundred pits. In the northern area containing houses B and C there was a circular arrangement of nine pits including a hazelnut roasting pit and a cooking pit. It was considered possible that their circular arrangement was due to their location within an enclosure, such as a light fence or hedge that has left no trace in the archaeological record. <1> <2> <3>