east coast of the British Isles in the medieval period. These quality wares were imported into Perth and may well have influenced the development and production of the Redware industry in Scotland.”
Despite the difficulties of archaeological recording during the watching briefs, the recovered artefact assemblage provides valuable evidence for activities taking place in the core of the medieval burgh. This was because there were excellent conditions for organic preservation within the middens and pit fills encountered, which led to the survival of a more diverse range of material and medieval artefact types than would otherwise be expected, including a medieval knife and fork still with their wooden handles, wooden pegs and pins, moss rope, antler offcuts and 68 fragments of leather shoes.
“During the medieval period, forks were used to assist in carving meat and in eating small delicacies,” said Adrian Cox who led the analyses of artefacts. “The use of forks as components of table cutlery did not begin until the second half of the seventeenth century. The overall form of the fork appears consistent with a use in picking up small food items, while the knife was also probably used at the table for the cutting and presentation of meat.”
Evidence for the preparation of textiles was recovered in the form of an iron heckle tooth and a ceramic spindle whorl. The assemblage of leather, however, was dominated by shoe parts rather than manufacturing debris, and so appears to be diagnostic of discarded leather items rather than workshop activity. The concentration of antler offcuts, however, does indicate the existence of a workshop in the near vicinity and provides important evidence for the manufacture of antler artefacts within the medieval burgh.
“Nowhere else in the burgh has such a concentration of antler offcuts been found,” said Catherine Smith, who examined the faunal remains, “it is apparent that a workshop, perhaps producing combs, must have been located there.”
The antler deposits here are matched only by an assemblage recovered from Linlithgow High Street (ARO 16), incidentally a town famed for its leather work.
Google Earth view of the current centre of Perth with St John’s Square highlighted