Scottish Iron Age Vitrified Hill Fort (SIAVH) Project

Hilltops defended by ditched and banked earthworks, sometimes augmented with masonry walls, are common features of Iron Age Europe, but it remains unknown why the defences of many examples were deliberately vitrified by subjecting them to intense and prolonged heat. Although examples exist in mainland Europe, Ireland and England, by far the highest concentration are in Scotland, and indeed until recently these were thought to be an exclusively Scottish phenomenon.

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The SIAVH Project (Scottish Iron Age Vitrified Hillfort Project), based at the University of York, will conduct archaeological investigation centred on The Knock vitrified Iron Age hill fort, Largs, Scotland. The Research will bring together the application of microscopic and multi-element soil analysis techniques to prehistoric Iron Age hill forts. The investigation will identify the materials and methods used in the vitrification of Iron Age hill forts, while determining the impact such large scale resource use had on the landscape and the human inhabitant.

The main research questions of this project are defined as follows:

Why has vitrification of the hill fort at The Knock occurred?
What are the methods employed in the building and firing of the structure?
Has the enclosure been used for the settlement and/or domestic activity?
The project will run initially over 18 months with initial Gradiometry survey being undertaken in August 2015 and subsequent stratigraphic archaeological excavation in May 2016.