Ardestia
The basement of Ardestie is north of the A92 from Dundee to Arbroath in the Scottish county of Angus . It was discovered in 1949 and excavated by the doyen of British basement exploration, Frederik Threlfall Wainwright, between February 1949 and June 1950. In the case of the basement, a basic distinction is made between "rock-cut", "earth-cut", "stone built" and "mixed" basements.
The out drywall existing underground complex (stonebuilt) was well received. Its side walls form a banana-shaped, curved structure originally around 24 m long for Scottish basements, which are common in the more complex Irish basements. The square that was created in the 1st or 2nd century AD was badly chosen because groundwater collected in the basement. A drain turned out to be insufficient and the basement was finally filled with water. The underground element was mostly interpreted as a storage room. In the above-ground area, some foundations were uncovered, which point to an Iron Age industrial use of the area. The wall stone of a hut carries a bowl .
Well-preserved basements are common in the Angus plains.
In the British Isles , the Iron Age basements are also called Earth Houses , Fogous or Weems . The term weem, used in Scotland, comes from the Gaelic Uaimh and means cave.
- Carlungie is 1.7 km northeast and has a complex series of corridors. They were connected to above-ground areas and were already backfilled in prehistoric times.
- Tealing, in the north of Dundee, is a basement whose entrance is well preserved and where the wall structure is particularly clear. Near the entrance there was a large boulder decorated with bowls.
See also
literature
- Frederick Threlfall Wainwright: Basement in Scotland. In: Antiquity. Vol. 27, No. 108, 1953, ISSN 0003-598X , pp. 219-232, doi : 10.1017 / S0003598X00025084 .
- Trevor Watkins: The Newmill souterrain. In: Current Archeology. Vol. 6, No. 7 = No. 66, 1979, ISSN 0011-3212 , pp. 205-208.
Coordinates: 56 ° 29'58 " N , 2 ° 48'38.1" W.