Excavating rock art in Strath Tay day 11: Excavating fissures

The day after the storm, we continue to excavate down through the centre of the main trench until we reach bedrock. The cobbles remain unconsolidated. This absence of structure suggests that if there ever was a cairn, it has been seriously disturbed. The fissures at the centre produced few artefacts and no quartz deposits were found there.

Above: Looking down on the centre of the main trench, showing the freshly excavated sections (Photo: Aaron Watson)

In contrast, a series of fissures towards the edge of the trench do contain deposits of worked quartz.

Above: Excavations towards the trench edge began to reveal quartz deposits (Photo: Aaron Watson)

Above: Worked quartz deposits had been placed within the recently excavated fissures (Photo: Aaron Watson)

A final clean up of the quartz boulders shows them to be a part of the bedrock, and that they appear to have been shaped into a zig-zag pattern.

Above: The angular pattern in the bedrock (Photo: Aaron Watson)

Above: An aerial view looking across the area of quartz-rich bedrock (Photo: Aaron Watson)

The 2018 excavations in Strath Tay were co-directed by Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson, assisted by Ronnie Scott and Moyra Simon. Many thanks to the landowner and estate staff for their support.