The Broxmouth hillfort is an Iron Age hillfort consisting of multiple roundhouses, a series of fortifications, and a cemetery. Broxmouth is located in East Lothian near Dunbar. The land surrounding Broxmouth is some of the richest farmlands in Scotland, and as a result this region produced a significant amount of cropmark evidence for late prehistoric settlements, including Broxmouth. In addition to agriculture, Broxmouth hillfort is located about 600 metres from the North Sea coast, providing the inhabitants access to waters for fishing. During the early centuries of its occupation, Broxmouth was one of largest settlements in the region.
Very thorough excavations of Broxmouth were carried out from 1977 to 1979 in response to the construction of a concrete works on the site. The excavations revealed a complex set of enclosures, multiple well preserved multi-phase roundhouses, and a range of artefacts. The excavations also revealed an extensive assemblage of animal bones and shells, as well as an Iron Age cemetery. It is unusual for Iron Age artefacts like these to survive, and it is quite rare for formal cemeteries such as the one at Broxmouth to be uncovered. As a result, Broxmouth provides valuable information about Iron Age Scottish settlements and burial practices.
Excavation Broxmouth hillfort was first recognised by Dr. St Joseph in 1956, thanks to aerial photographs showing the cropmarks associated with the site. Further aerial photography was undertaken in 1972 by John Dewar, by Fairey Surveys Ltd. in 1974, and by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from 1976 to 1978.
Rescue excavations of Broxmouth were carried out between 1977 and 1978 shortly before the site was destroyed during the process of quarrying for the construction of Lafarge Tarmac Cement Works. The excavations were carried out by Peter Hill under the direction of Ian Armit of the University of Bradford. Because the site was going to be completely destroyed in the process building the concrete plant, it was of the utmost importance for the site to be investigated and recorded as thoroughly as possible. Many high-quality radio carbon dates were recorded at Broxmouth, the quality of which had not been possible before. These radio carbon dates provided a detailed perspective of the chronology of Broxmouth. The excavation at Broxmouth is the most complete excavation of a Scottish hillfort to date, and is widely considered one of the most important Iron Age sites in Britain, as it provides new insights into life in Scotland from 600 BCE to 200 CE.
Though excavations were undertaken between 1977 and 1978, a full analysis of the excavation was not published until 2013. In 2008 Historic Scotland negotiated the transfer of the archive of documents associated with the Broxmouth excavations to the University of Bradford, where it was prepared for publication. This programme of post-excavation analysis took place at the University of Bradford from 2008 to 2013. This programme was funded by Historic Scotland and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The analysis was published in British Archaeology.
Archaeology Broxmouth is a fairly typical hillfort in terms of size and form. The excavation of Broxmouth is generally considered to have been the most complete excavation of a Scottish hillfort to date. However, this minimizes the effects of truncation on the remains of the site. A majority of the structures and deposits that were originally present at Broxmouth have been lost, and no archaeological remains survived. The most striking instance of truncation is the result of modern ploughing and is particularly present in the northern and eastern parts of the site, where plough damage had destroyed all archeological features other than the deep ditches of the hillfort. Aside from a few rare areas of paving that survived beneath the ploughed soil in the southwest and central parts of the interior, archaeological deposits tended to only survive in areas where they were more protected. Areas where deposits tended to survive include within hollows formed by the topography of the hill, as negative features, in areas covered by and protected by later deposits, and where structures had sunk into the remains of infilled ditches as features settled and consolidated. What was preserved and excavated only represents a small portion of what would have originally been present at the site.
Settlement Sequence Broxmouth hillfort was inhabited for around 1000 years. There is evidence of human activity dating back as far as 3000 BCE, including two flint scatters on the flanks of the hill and a sherd of late Neolithic pottery in a small pit in cemetery area. Permanent settlement was established around 600 BCE, when a wooden stockade was constructed around the hilltop. Broxmouth was then continuously inhabited until 200 CE, when the Roman occupation of the area ended. Each generation built on top of what the previous generation had built. The layers of construction allowed the excavation team to identify different stages of construction and occupation.
When Broxmouth was originally excavated accelerator mass spectrometry was not available, so the initial phasing of the site was developed using stratigraphic evidence and artefactual and structural typology. As a result, the currently accepted chronology that was published in the 2013 post-excavation analyses An Inherited Place: Broxmouth Hillfort and the South-East Scottish Iron Age is quite different from original phasing developed by Hill. One of the elements that was most vital to the construction of a chronology for Broxmouth has been a Baysian analysis of the radiocarbon dates, which was possible thanks to the large quantity of established dates and the presence of long stratigraphic chains. This allowed the ranges of potential dates to be constrained and refined, and for outliers to be identified. The phasing has been restricted to within the Iron Age due to the limited amount of evidence for earlier activity, which was likely confined to the middle Neolithic period. Within the Iron Age there was no period of significant abandonment besides the period between Phases 6 and 7.
Evidence for Neolithic use Unlike the rest of the area at and around the hillfort, the cemetery provides evidence for earlier Neolithic activity. One small pit contained hazelnuts and a few sherds of late Neolithic pottery. Another stone feature from the Neolithic period provided more pottery, chert, and animal bone. These artefacts have been lost since excavation, but it is possible that they represented the remains of a denuded funerary monument.
Phase 1 (640/570 - 490/430 BCE) Phase 1 is the earliest period of permanent Iron Age occupation, but this period predates the construction of the hillfort. The earliest surviving element from this period and immediate predecessor to the hillfort was a large, palisaded enclosure with a shallow external ditch. The ditch was infilled at some point in Phase 1. Immediately outside of the palisade wall, built on top of the infilled ditches, were the remains of two roundhouses and a series of timber-built structures. There is evidence of early ironworking activity dating to Phase 1. Additionally, there were two inhumation graves (Graves 1 and 2) from Phase 1. Aside from the palisade trench and the graves, deposits associated with Phase 1 only survive beneath the Phase 2 and 3 ramparts in the West Entrance area, which protected the Phase 1 deposits from erosion. Despite the limited survival of deposits and structures, the finds from Phase 1 indicate that Broxmouth may have been a "substantial early Iron Age settlement."
Phase 2 (490/430 - 395/375 BCE) The hillfort was constructed at the beginning of Phase 2 in two stages of construction, Phase 2a and Phase 2b. In Phase 2a an inner ditch and rampart was constructed, and in Phase 2b a middle ditch and corresponding rampart was constructed. There were two entrances to the hillfort during Phase 2, one on the eastern side of the hillfort on the western side. The only surviving evidence of entrance features dates to Phase 2b and was near the West Entrance. The entrance feature consisted of a significant length of early rampart material and the remains of an elaborate gateway. The evidence for the Phase 2 ditches was patchy, as the ditches had been almost completely destroyed during the recutting that took place in Phase 3. No domestic structures survive from Phase 2.
Phase 3 (395/375 - 295/235 BCE) Phase 3 is characterised by a complex sequence of entrance works, which included the construction of a major gateway structure. The enclosure system was significantly reworked at the beginning of Phase 3. One of the most significant changes was that the West Entrance from Phase 2 was blocked by the newly constructed Phase 3 rampart and the entry causeways from Phase 2 were removed when the ditches were recut. The South-west Entrance was constructed in this period to replace the West Entrance. Over the course of Phase 3 (which can be broken into four subphases, Subphases 3a-3d) the hillfort was gradually expanded outward. The hillfort initially developed successive univallate enclosures, eventually developing into a partially trivallate enclosure with the enclosure of a complete Outer ditch and a partial Outermost Ditch. At its largest (in Subphase 3d) the enclosures contained about 1.5 hectares (though this doesn't account for space within the enclosure system that was taken up by ramparts or walls). At the end of Phase 3 the ditches were infilled. No domestic structures from Phase 3 have survived.
Phase 4 (295/235 - 235/210 BCE) It appears that the settlement expanded outward beyond the inner rampart after the ditches were infilled in Phase 3. Several sections of the infilled ditches show evidence of structures from Phase 4 that had sunk into the infill material as it settled and consolidated. This evidence was preserved best in a stretch of inner dish near the West Entrance, where a series of roundhouses were preserved. More ephemeral evidence was found in other parts of the infilled ditch.
Phase 5 (235/210 - 100/60 BCE) After the houses from Phase 4 were abandoned, the inner ditch at the West Entrance was filled with a series of midden deposits. The midden used likely originated from domestic waste and construction activity taking place in the interior. No structures or artefacts from Phase 5 were found surviving in situ. The process of infilling the ditches continued into Phase 6, as a result it was not always possible to determine which phase a specific deposit belonged to. No domestic structures from Phase 5 survive, though a small inhumation cemetery was established to the north of the hillfort.
Phase 6 (100/60bce - 155/210 CE) A majority of the surviving structures within the interior of the hillfort are from Phase 6. In areas of the interior that were not severely truncated a series of tightly packed stone- and timber-walled roundhouses were revealed, indicating that the settlement was densely occupied. Several of the structures show evidence of extended periods of occupations and periodic remodelling. The settlement seems to have survived two to three centuries of continuous use into the period of Antonine occupation, if not later. It appeared that in the beginning of Phase 6 a new enclosure bank was constructed along the course of the inner rampart. Though it would not have survived for the entirety of Phase 6, the new enclosure bank was accompanied by a monumental timber entryway. There is evidence for the renewal of the enclosure wall at the South-west Entrance.
Phase 7 (420 - 540 CE)