Description

The monument comprises the remains of univallate enclosure, likely to be a settlement dated to the late prehistoric period (late centuries BC/early centuries AD), and surviving as cropmarks within cultivated land. The monument is located at around 95m above sea level on a S-facing slope around 480m north of the Eye Water. The monument was first scheduled in 1991 and is being rescheduled in order to improve the associated documentation and to amend the scheduled area to more accurately protect the surviving remains.

Cropmarks represent negative archaeological features, the fills of which retain more moisture than the surrounding subsoil, resulting in the enhanced growth of the crops above. The visible traces of the monument consist of sub-circular ditch enclosing an area that measures around 50m from NNW to SSE by around 40m transversely. There are two gaps, possible entrances, within the circuit of the ditch, one measuring around 13m in the NNW and the other measuring around 9m in the SSE. Within the interior of the enclosure are further negative features, including one complete and three partial sub-circular features, potentially representing contemporary domestic structures. In addition, within the interior there are a series of eight pits, of unknown date and function

The area to be scheduled is circular in plan, to include the remains described and an area around within which evidence relating to the monuments construction and use may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

Cultural Significance

The monument's cultural significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics

The monument has been identified from a series of oblique aerial photographs taken between 1976 and 1996 and survives as a number of clearly visible negative features. The form of these features indicates the remains are an enclosed settlement of the Iron Age, with good survival of associated domestic features within the interior.

It is highly probable that the ditches and other surviving negative features contain archaeologically significant deposits as well as artefact and ecofact assemblages. Similar monuments, when excavated, have shown good survival of stratified deposits relating to occupation. The monument therefore has an inherent capacity to further our understanding of the activities undertaken within and around the settlement and inform our knowledge of the people who inhabited it, their social structure and identity, domestic architecture and living arrangements. Further the monument also has an inherent potential to inform our understanding of the duration of occupation, whether there were different and distinct phases of use and the circumstances within which the monument may have functioned and been finally abandoned

Artefact assemblages in particular have the capacity to further our understanding of the nature of contact with other groups of people from within the region, or from further afield, such as the incoming Romans.

Evidence from contemporary monuments of similar form indicates that the ditch would have had a bank of upcast, forming a further boundary element around the settlement. Vestiges of this bank, and other positive features, are likely to preserve traces of the land surface and soils upon which the monument was created. These have the capacity to inform our knowledge of the environment within which the monument was constructed and can further our understanding of how the environment was used and altered through time.

Contextual characteristics

The monument is located within open, rolling lowland landscape at around 95m above sea level. There are good views in all directions, particularly south towards the Eye Water 490m away.

The Eye Water floodplain has a particularly rich concentration of prehistoric monuments, usually surviving as cropmark sites within cultivated land. Within the immediate proximity of this monument are several broadly contemporary settlements. 1.17km to the east is a palisaded settlement, whilst 720m to the south-east is a pit alignment. A roundhouse has been located 990m to south-east and 1.17km to the north-east is another cluster of cropmarks representing the remains of a further settlement enclosure with internal features, a roundhouse and a partial enclosure, and 1.34km to the west is another enclosure. While this may partially reflect good survival through sympathetic later land use, this particular monument, when compared and contrasted to such contemporary settlements, has an inherent capacity to greatly enhance our understanding of settlement type and the potential development and patterns of settlement distribution in this region in later prehistory. Comparing and contrasting the monument to contemporary sites both within and beyond the region can also inform an understanding of regional identity, economy and society and has the potential to enhance our knowledge of contact with contemporary indigenous societies and those from further afield, such as the Romans.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it has an inherent potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the past, in particular later prehistoric domestic architecture and arrangements and developments in settlement construction, pattern, function and form along the Eye Water. It also has the capacity to inform our knowledge of contemporary society, economy and land use. The good preservation of negative features and their associated fills enhances this potential, as much of the artefactual and ecofactual evidence is likely to survive. The loss of the monument will impede our ability to understand the nature of later prehistoric activity, not just in the SE Scottish Borders but across Scotland, as well as the value placed on such monuments by later communities.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as Heugh Head, settlement, NT86SE 20.

Aerial photographs:

RCAHMS (1990) NT86SE 20 Heugh Head Settlement B 38299.

RCAHMS (1996) NT86SE 20 Heugh Head Settlement C 74033.

References:

Dent J and McDonald R (1997) EARLY SETTLERS IN THE BORDERS, Scottish Borders Council.

RCAHMS (1980b) THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND MONUMENTS OF BERWICKSHIRE DISTRICT, BORDERS REGION, The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Scotland Series No. 10, 43, No. 370. Edinburgh: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland