Rectilinear ditched enclosures have long been recognised as a component of the southern-Scotland settlement record, extending a distribution of similar sites known in northern England (Maxwell 1970; Cowley 2000; Jobey 1966; McCord and Jobey 1968). Excavations in northern England and in South West Scotland have established that the origins of these settlements lie in the middle centuries of the 1st millennium BC, with a floruit in the last two centuries BC and the first two centuries AD (Jobey and Jobey 1988; Haggarty and Haggarty 1983; Johnston 1994).
Excavations in advance of housing development at Brixwold, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian revealed a large sub-rectangular ditched enclosure with dating suggesting occupation between 4th centuries BC to 2nd century AD (Crone and Sullivan 1997). This site was one of the first of these types of enclosures on the Lothian plain to be dated. Since them many others have been excavated and Knowes and East Bearford are good representatives of some of the 50 rectilinear settlements identified to date in East Lothian (Haslegrove 2009; Cowley 2009).
Excavations at Knowes revealed a complex history of occupation and structural alteration associated with first enclosed and then unenclosed phases of settlement, probably spanning a period of some centuries and associated with a relatively large and diverse finds assemblage which included some quite unusual items such as the amber bead, and several cup stones and glass bangles, as well as the late cist burial containing cremated human remains. Based on the radiocarbon dates the rectilinear enclosure was founded in the 2nd or 1st centuries BC at the latest. No direct evidence of banks was found, but what seem to be collapsed remnants of a supporting revetment were found at the entrance, which added to the paucity of features just inside the ditch, suggests there must originally have been at least an inner bank. Given the sandy subsoil, both bank and ditch would have been highly unstable and prone to collapse, and even with the evidence of recutting, it would not be surprising if the enclosure phase was short-lived, perhaps only a few decades. A scooped settlement was recovered, a series of 2nd to 1st century BC radiocarbon dates from the lower levels imply that this settlement may not be far removed in time from the digging of the enclosure circuit.
The single radiocarbon date obtained from the waterlogged material in the base of the ditch implies that the rectilinear enclosure at East Bearford, like its counterpart at Knowes, dates to the later iron age, again confirming a later Iron Age date, which is in line with excavated sites in northern England and elsewhere in southern Scotland.
A noteworthy element of the distribution of rectilinear enclosures is that they rarely overlie other sites. and it seems likely that many of the rectilinear sites may be new foundations in the later iron age, perhaps reflecting an increase in settlement and a consequent intensification of agriculture. Virtually without exception, enclosures of rectilinear or sub- rectangular form in the coastal plain tend to be smaller and simpler, with just a single, albeit frequently fairly substantial, ditch. Internal features are visible at many sites, most taking the form of amorphous ‘blobs’ which are assumed to be the scooped floors of roundhouses and yards.