Glasgow deep time

The excavation of Camphill enclosure in Queen’s Park, Glasgow, in the late summer of 2026 was an exercise in trying to demonstrate that this extensive monument could, just possibly, be Iron Age. A sort of #UrbanPrehistory proof of concept. Yet these investigations, directed by myself and Eddie Stewart and Kieran Manchip (both Archaeology Scotland) ended up finding several objects that could well push back the occupation – or at least the use – of this dominant drumlin position back to into the Neolithic period. Early on in the excavation, a team member found what is likely to be the butt end of a small Neolithic polished stone axe just beside a small posthole that was located in one of some 20 test pits that we dug across the enclosure’s interior. The day after, a fragment of another stone tool, possibly an axe, or some kind of pounder, was found mixed amongst bank material that had slumped away on the exterior of the enclosure on its north side. A further fragment of what might be a…