Working alongside community volunteers, RoCAS assisted in the sorting, organising and identification of bags of artefacts and samples recovered during the 2013 fieldwork on the Cromarty Medieval Burgh Community Archaeology Project.  The Cromarty Arts Trust provided the team with use of the Cromarty Stables, an open and well-lit space, in which to assess and lay out the material and to digitise databases ahead of an assessment visit by the project's ceramic specialists.

Post Medieval and Medieval pottery specialists Derek Hall and George Haggarty are interested in this important site, an excavation with the potential to fill a gap in our knowledge of east coast Scottish Medieval burghs established in the 12th century.  Derek and George's initial assessment indicates that there appears to be a high quantity of imported redware ceramics during earlier periods of occupation of the site, with a gradual transition to locally-made redware pottery. The later ceramics are equally intriguing, with very little high status pots being represented. An assessment of the spread of the material will help us to learn much more about the settlement along Thief’s Row.

Other initial observations from analysis of the 2013 fieldwork results suggest that the site may have been an industrial area within the burgh related to fishing. At the moment, this is supported by the amount of shellfish remains (most likely used for bait), large quantities of fish bone associated with rich ash layers, the number of stone ‘pot lids’ and very few domestic cooking pots.