Calanais Survey and Excavation, 1979-88
10. Area E
Illus 10.1 Laying out Area E on 30 April 81 [Film 1981.1.8] 10.1 Introduction Excavation of Area E took place in 1981, supervised by Ian Maté. The trench, in its final form a rectangle measuring 3 m by 3 m with a small extension, was placed to investigate Stone 35. The stone had been prone before some date between c. 1860 and 1878. The history of its erection and re-erection is discussed in Chapter 3, Previous Studies. The excavated area included the edge of Lady Matheson’s path. It seemed before excavation to have been in an area stripped of peat in 1857 (see Chapter 4 Introduction to the fieldwork). 10.1.1 Aims Our aims in excavating this area were simple. We wished to discover whether there were any prehistoric stone-pits. The trench also offered an opportunity to characterise Lady Matheson’s Path more fully,
Illus 10.2 Location of Area E and to see what effect if any it had had on underlying strata. We expected (only partly correctly) to confirm that the area had been stripped of peat by Sir James Area E \ 415