The History of the Broich Cursus Gradually Unravels !
Dr Brophy points out the extent of the Broich Cursus
Crieff High School pupils lay out the plan of the Pittentian Round house
The growing importance of
Strathearn as an area of significance in
a Neolithic Scotland was further
emphasised last week with the visit to
the Campus site by Dr Kenneth
Brophy of Glasgow University and his archaeologist colleague Ally Becket of Northlight
Heritage . The visitation was part of the Perth and Kinross Archaeology Month organised by the Perth and Kinross Heritage trust . Apart from the
significance of the Cursus dating
back to 3000 BC a number of recent finds
throughout the Strath have now
firmly established this part of Perthshire as something unique in the long path to Scottish nationhood .
Ally Becket discussed in
some detail the Pittentian round house
located during the pre construction work on the Beauly to Denny overhead power line . It was
graphically illustrated to an
appreciative audience the size and type of construction involved .Thanks to the
cooperation of the pupils of
Crieff High School , a layout was constructed using a number
of large pots to illustrate the positioning of the post
holes . The captivated audience then climbed
the adjoining embankment to the
school rugby pitch and were able
to look down on the layout and appreciate just how large it was actually .
Earlier the audience listened attentively to Ken Brophy as he outlined what was
now known about the Broich Cursus . Dr Brophy is
part of the SERF (Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot ) team who have
carried out a considerable amount of excavation
and study of the area
since 2006 and is a renowned
authority on the Cursus that have
so far been discovered in Scotland
Between 2006 and 2010 Alder and SUAT Ltd had investigated
what is now known as the Broich Cursus
monument. Broadly speaking Cursus monuments are long Neolithic enclosures
bounded by ditches, banks or pits usually built on gravelly river terraces. The
are many interpretations for these structures from ceremonial processional ways
to strips of land where people were prohibited to walk, but the truth is that
the function of these monuments is poorly understood.
The Broich Cursus was
originally identified from aerial photographs showing a 400m long crop mark in
a field south of Broich
Road near
Crieff. The monument comprised two ditches (135-105m apart) which diverged
slightly as the monument extended north. North of the Broich Road the monument could not be traced on aerial photos,
the western ditch crossing a grassy field and the eastern seeming to follow Pittenzie Road .
When
the land north of Broich Road became the focus for the development
of the new community campus, an archaeological investigation took place to try
to locate traces of the Cursus. In the first phase of work (2006) trial
trenching successfully located the western ditch, but unfortunately the eastern
ditch was not found which suggested that it presumably ran along land now
occupied by Pittenzie Road . In 2007 the turf and topsoil covering
the western ditch was stripped right back, exposing a 147m length. No
associated bank had survived, a sign that the field may have been ploughed over
after the monument went out of use. The ditch varied in depth from between
0.56m deep to just 4cm deep, and was 1.5-2.5m wide and had gently sloping,
roughly symmetrical sides and a flat to concave base. It was most shallow in
the northern-most excavated portion.
The old
school is located to the north It was demolished about 2009
The
focus of the 2009 investigations was to find out how far the western ditch had
survived under the playing fields towards Crieff High School (the 1960s school, now demolished).
Surprisingly the ditch was found to have survived right up to the school walls
under a tarmac playground. The dimensions of the ditch were roughly as they had
been in the 2008 phase (2.2m wide and up to 0.4m deep). One interesting
discovery from this phase was that the ditch bent eastwards here, suggesting
that the ditch in this area was approaching the northern terminal of the
Cursus. Terminals of cursus monuments are generally considered important as
they seem to be the focus for ritual activity . Unfortunately when trial trenches were placed across the demolished school in 2010 it was found that the construction of the old school
had destroyed any evidence of the monument's terminal.
Dr
Brophy pointed out that the northern end of the Cursus would
have provided a spectacular view of the rising hills above Crieff and
that the overall size was such that
it could well have taken some
decades to construct .
South
of the Broich Cursus across the River Earn
is another cursus at Bennybeg on the road to Muthill . Once again one of the key points
is that it adjoins a spectacular
item of scenic grandeur , namely
the rock face which nowadays attracts
young trainee climbers from all
over .
Much
is still to be learned from these monuments from the past
which have largely lain undisturbed since pre history . They have added yet
more to the fascination of Strathearn’s ancient past .
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