2022’s top ten: multiple post-holes in Structure Five

The location of the Structure Five post-holes. (Scott Pike)

Two covered depressions on either side of the blocked south-western entrance were found to be large, well-built post-holes, indicating that the doorway was also flanked by a pair of substantial timber posts or pillars.

Another four post-holes of similar size were found up against the interior walls of the original building. Did these posts help support the roof? If so, this is interesting because posts are not a structural feature of the later buildings on site.

The two substantial post-holes flanking Structure Five’s primary entrance. (Jo Bourne)

Where evidence of post use has been found elsewhere on site, it pointed to (hasty) structural repairs (e.g., a post was inserted after the collapse of Structure Eight’s roof to shore up the surviving northern end).

Whatever their role, the Structure Five posts were removed, possibly after the addition of an extension to the north-east end.

Artefacts – including stone tools, a decorated stone and a whale vertebra – were then deposited in the empty sockets before being covered over.