Radiocarbon Dating

Date 2008

Event ID 578579

Category Scientific Dating

Type Radiocarbon Dating

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578579

NN 874 221 The Early Bronze Age cinerary urn and cremated bones were discovered in the late 1960s (DES 1967, 36 and DES 1968, 27–8). The urn, of Enlarged Food Vessel (Vase Urn) type, was published in Trevor Cowie’s corpus of such urns (Cowie 1978). Having been in private hands for many years, the urn and cremated bone re-surfaced in Crieff in 2007 and were deposited with Perth Museum.

When initially identified in the 1960s, the bones were believed to be those of two children, a possible adult and

part of a goat. Re-examination of the remains led by Dr K McSweeney of Edinburgh University in December 2007 has concluded that only two human individuals are present. One is a child of c6 years, the other an adolescent aged 12–20, and the animal bones can only be determined as being of a sheep-sized mammal. The condition and colour of the cremated bones suggests that the bodies were burnt soon after death in a well controlled fire (with a temperature above 645oC).

No radiocarbon dating was carried out at the time of the discovery and two dates, one from each individual, have now been obtained. The dates show that the two individuals are around 4000 years old. There is a 95.4% probability that Individual 1 dates to between 2116 and 1881 BC (SUERC-18312, GU-16654, 3600±35 BP) and that Individual 2 dates to between 2191 and 1947 BC (SUERC-18313, GU-16655, 3670±35 BP).

The dates are statistically inseparable and the overlap between them indicates that both individuals could have died and been cremated and buried at or around the same time. The fact that the urn was found intact suggests that the remains were probably placed inside it at the same time and the probability is that the bones were interred simultaneously. The 14C dates represent an important addition to our dating of the Vase Urn, the earliest type of cinerary urn in use in Scotland.

Dating carried out with grant aid from Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and partnership funding from National Museums Scotland.

Cowie, T G 1978 Bronze Age Food Vessel Urns in Northern Britain, BAR Brit ser 55, 131.

Mark A Hall and Alison Sheridan (Perth Museum and Art Gallery / National Museums Scotland), 2008