Edin's Hall
Coordinates: 55 ° 50 '8 " N , 2 ° 21' 56" W.
The system of Edin's Hall (also Edinshall Broch; Odin 's hall) is an archaeological find place near the Scottish city of Duns in the Council Area Scottish Borders . It consists of an Iron Age brochure , a hill fort and a settlement . The facility is best known for the Edin's Hall Broch , which with a diameter of 28.5 m is the largest and at the same time the southernmost in Scotland . It is one of only three brochures (next to Bow Castle and Torwoodlee ) in the border region.
Research history
The first investigations of the complex were carried out in 1793 by John Blackadder, who reported that many elements had been destroyed by stone theft. In the 19th century, George Turnbull and later his son John carried out excavations , some of the sections of which are still visible. John Turnbull also described further damage that he attributed to the activities of treasure hunters. In 1887 the facility came into state care and parts of the brochure were restored. The most recent excavation was carried out by Andrew Dunwell in 1996. Historic Scotland commissioned him to carry out the excavation after it became known that the site was once again at great risk - this time from rabbits.
Edin's Hall Broch
The broch was built around 100 AD within the existing complex. Its walls tower up to a height of two meters and form a round interior with a diameter of 18 m. Three chambers and the narrow entrance are housed in the double wall. In the entrance there are two rooms designated as guard rooms. In one of these chambers is the beginning of a staircase that ran inside the wall and led to an upper floor that has no longer been preserved. A quarter of the interior is paved with stone slabs, which replace the previous paving made of gravel. The corridor and the other chambers also have such slab floors. A disc-shaped copper bar was discovered under the paving of a chamber, which is interpreted as a supply or a votive offering . It connects Broch users to the copper mines about 1 km away . The Broch has a wall that separates it from the settlement.
The settlement
The age of the settlement cannot be precisely determined, but it is believed that it coexisted with the Broch. The settlement consisted of twelve as the Broch in Drywall way built, roundhouses , and a building with a square floor plan. The round houses are single-storey huts that were probably covered with a conical wooden roof. The settlement has its own stone wall, which also forms several courtyards. A passage leads from the entrance in the east to the Broch in the west. The finds from the settlement consist of stone tools and partly damaged pieces of jewelry such as amber or stone beads . Stone rings of different sizes were also found, which were also used as jewelry or as weaving weights .
The Fort
The Hillfort surrounds the Broch and the settlement and is around 150 m long and 90 m wide. The double wall and ditch system is still well preserved. In the northeast, the trenches are built over by the courtyards of the settlement and Roundhouse 6 lies entirely outside the wall. It is assumed that the fort has existed since the Bronze Age , but an exact determination is difficult due to the location.
Literature and Sources
- Anna Ritchie, Graham Ritchie: Scotland. To Oxford Archaeological Guide . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-288002-0 , ( Oxford archaeological guides ).
- Edin's Hall in the Archeology Data Service (PDF) ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) September 15, 2012
