RARE and remarkable items were found during the construction of a Glasgow housing development.
Archaeologists uncovered the remains of early suburbs four and a half meters under a building site in Spoutmouth, Gallowgate.
Well-preserved wooden posts with woven fencing and medieval pottery were discovered by the GUARD Archaeology team, who were called in to assist after workers came across the objects.
Thomas Muir, who is leading archaeologists, said: "We have unearthed 63 upright posts arranged in three lines defining three broad linear areas.
"Caught up in the wattle fencing are numerous sherds of medieval pottery, animal bone and other organic material.
“This is a remarkable survival of organic archaeology in an area of the city that has witnessed substantial development over the many years since Glasgow was first established. A small sliver of medieval Glasgow that has somehow survived centuries of building and rebuilding.”
Bob Will, medieval pottery expert, added: “The bulk of the pottery is a mix of medieval fragments, which date to around the 13th-14th centuries AD.
"The wattle fencing appears to be part of a very early eastward expansion of the medieval burgh.”
Previously a car park, the site is now being converted into 34 homes for social rent and two commercial units by Wheatley Homes Glasgow.
The £9.3 million development is part-funded by Glasgow City Council.
But for now, work has halted until the completion of archaeological works, expected in November.
Posts and pottery will be carefully removed from the site and passed to museums once analyses have been undertaken.
Once the site is cleared, construction will resume with completion anticipated by summer 2027.
Muir added: "As these are so deep, the site is constantly flooding but this is also why these wooden remains have survived for so long.
“This rare discovery of preserved wooden structures opens a window into Glasgow’s past when it underwent its first wave of major expansion.
"It is no news that Glasgow will celebrate its 850th anniversary of receiving burgh status this year, but, remarkably, in the same year, we have discovered some evidence of those beginnings at Spoutmouth."
The site lies on the south of the former line of the Molendinar Burn, which was once one of the most well-known water courses in Glasgow that drains into the River Clyde. It now flows underground, having been culverted in the 1800s.
It has associations with St Mungo, who founded his church on its banks in the late 6th century AD.
