Scheduled Maintenance
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance on the following dates: •
Tuesday 3rd December 11:00-15:00
During these times, some services may be temporarily unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Scotland's Rock Art Project (ScRAP)
Date 29 October 2018
Event ID 1118497
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1118497
Date Fieldwork Started: 29/10/2018
Compiled by: ACFA South Glasgow
Location Notes: This panel is displayed at the entrance to the Science Gallery in the National Museum of Rural Life, Wester Kittochside Farm, East Kilbride. It came from the site of North Mains, Strathallan, Perthshire excavated by Dr Gordon J Barclay et al in 1979. This extensive complex comprised a round barrow and a class II henge. The panel was associated with the barrow (Barclay, G.J. 1984. Sites of the third millennium bc to the first millennium ad at North Mains, Strathallan, Perthshire, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 113 (1983): 189-192, with an image of the slab as found in Plate 15).
Panel Notes: This is a large, thin slab measuring approximately 2.1 x 1.6m maximum and 0.3m thick. It is currently mounted on a plinth where the public can both see and touch it. Its decorated front surface is smooth and flat, whereas the rear surface is fractured and rough where is was cut during removal, either in antiquity or at the time of excavation. The excavation report (Barclay 1984, p.189) notes that: 'In the shallow pit dug in 1957 a large cupmarked slab was found lying decorated face down, apparently, left in the condition after the earlier undated disturbance. After the 1957 excavation the slab was left lying decorated face upwards at the edge of the pit. There were about 30 complete or unfinished cupmarks on one surface. In addition there were a number of groups of peck-marks, perhaps the beginnings of cupmarks. The stone was severely damaged some months after the completion of the excavation and has since been removed by SDD (Ancient Monuments) to a place of safety. Any evidence of a relationship between the cupmarked slab, burial K and the stone capping of the mound was destroyed by the earlier excavations.' The damage is clearly visible when comparing Plate 15 from Barclay's report with the current stone. At least 5 prominent cupmarks on the panel's upper edge (four of which were arranged in a diamond shape) are now missing. Recording by ACFA Team South identified 12 probable cupmarks, 3 of which are truncated by the damage to the panel, as well as some of the 'unfinished cupmarks' referred to in the report.
