Wag of Forse
The Wag of Forse (also called Wag O 'Forse) is one of the largest archaeological sites in the Scottish county of Caithness in the Highlands . Forse is located on the A99 coastal road, 18 km southwest of Wick . The approximately 50 × 80 m area was only partially excavated. 1939, 1948 by James Curle (1866–1944) and 1964/65 by A. Young and EW MacKie.
At the square there are menhirs and stone boxes , a burnt mound , a variety of hills or a special form of platforms (wags), as well as building remains of a transition type between broch and dun with gates, chambers, stairs and tunnels. The dark-like structure has analogies in the Keiss brochures. The surrounding field system, divided into segments with large stones, was built parallel to the complex from the 1st century BC. BC ( Iron Age ) used until the end of the 1st millennium.
The development, which essentially took place within an oval structure consisting of ramparts and ditches, took place in phases and in part over older structures. The first excavator divided the findings into the following periods:
- Pre-Wag
- Primary Wag
- Intermediate
- Secondary Wag
- Sub secondary
During the excavation of the ruins, finds from the Pre-Wag period came to light in two places. This involved shards (of a cooking pot), slag and plaster, but also an oval structural structure with an irregularly shaped pair of rooms in the north. The wags, elongated, rectangular or trapezoidal, flattened hills that only occur in Caithness and Sutherland have hardly been explored. One has a row of menhirs in the middle.
literature
- A. Baines: Breaking the circle: archeology and architecture in the later Iron Age of northern Scotland . In: P. Frodsham, P. Topping & D. Cowley (Eds.): We were always chasing time. (1999) Northern Archeology Vol. 17/18 pp. 77-78.
- Joanna Close-Brooks: The Highlands . HMSO, Edinburgh 1986, ISBN 0-11-492460-0 , ( Exploring Scotland's heritage ).
- JNG Ritchie: Brochs of Scotland . Princes Risborough, Shire Archeology secund edition 1998, ISBN 0-7478-0389-7 p. 33
Web links
- Sketch of the Wag of Forse
- Brief description and picture
- Description of the Dun engl. and picture
- Entry on Wag of Forse in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland's database
Coordinates: 58 ° 17 ′ 54 " N , 3 ° 21 ′ 29.5" W.