ABSTRACT
A final phase or phases, assigned to the Roman period, was represented by an open settlement of stone-built houses on foundations scooped into and over the derelict defences. Mercer's fieldwork of the mid-1980s in the adjacent Bowmont valley in fact suggested the possibility of parallel progression from palisaded enclosures to walled or embanked enclosures, at Camp Tops and Craik Moor, Morebattle, which might imply similar social and economic conditions among neighbouring communities. During the late 1970s and '80s, air-photographic survey greatly amplified the number of known sites in the south-eastern Borders, especially of the newly recognized cord-rig agriculture, increasing qualitatively our understanding of later prehistoric settlement. Crannog archaeology in Scotland has greatly advanced through the activities of the Scottish Wetland Archaeology Programme, and in the south-west in particular by fieldwork carried out since 2002 in the aftermath of the second phase of the South West Crannog Survey.
