Project background
Sue McGalliard, Donald Wilson · Scottish archaeological internet reports/Scottish archaeological internet report · 2021
Between August and September 2018, Headland Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations at Thainstone Business Park, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, following an evaluation undertaken by Cameron Archaeology (2018).Several Bronze Age and Iron Age features were identified, including cremation burials, roundhouses, a souterrain, a ring ditch and a pit cluster.The work was commissioned by Axiom Project Services in response to a condition on a planning application (APP/2015/3793 and APP/2018/0140) submitted to Aberdeenshire Council in advance of commercial development of the site.The objectives of the excavation were to record archaeological features and establish the date and duration of settlement activity. Site locationThe development site was located in fields laid to pasture to the west of Thainstone Agricultural Centre, approximately 3km to the south of Inverurie, Aberdeenshire (NGR: NJ 7707 1809; Illus 1).The excavation area was situated on a plateau between 104m and 111m AOD, with a gradual south-facing slope descending towards the River Don.The geology of the area comprised Aberdeen Formation -psammite and semipelitemetamorphic bedrock formed between 1,000 and 541 million years ago.This was originally sedimentary rock formed in shallow seas and later altered by low-grade metamorphism.The superficial geology was made up of the Banchory Till Formation -diamicton.These were formed between 116 and 11.8 thousand years ago during the Quaternary period (NERC 2020). Archaeological and historical background