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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651615

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651615

NC80SW 5 8465 0070.

(NC 8465 0070) Cist (NR)

OS 25"map, (1967)

A short cist which was exposed during gravel-digging in a moraine hummock on 24th March 1880, and contained a crouched skeleton, a beaker, 118 shale beads, 18 quartzose beach-rolled pebbles and three flints.

The cist, unpaved, measures 4ft by 2ft 4ins by 2ft 3ins deep internally and lies at a depth of 2ft 2ins. The E end-slab has been removed.

The skeleton, of a brachycephalic young woman, lay on its right side with the beaker (Clarke's No 1784: N/NR Group), 7ins high, behind the head and the three flints, one a scraper, another pointed and the third with a sharp cutting edge, near the breast (Joass 1885). The beads, only six of which are perforated, are described as being about 1/3 inch in diameter, and the size and thickness of a threepenny bit' (Joass 1885), and appear to comprise o'a partially complete, single-string necklace (Callander 1916). They lay at the heels of the skeleton with the pebbles, 2ins long, nearby.

The beaker is in Dunrobin Museum (Accession no: 1880.2) as are 'shale objects' which were found 'near trial holes on the cist mound at Dunrobin Park' (Information from TS of Catalogue of Dunrobin Museum by A S Henshall), probably in 1882 (Acc No: 1882.2-9).

Cist surveyed at 1:2500 (OS [EGC] 7 April 1962).

J M Joass 1885; 1904; J Abercromby 1904; 1912; RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; J G Callander 1916; D L Clarke 1970; Information contained in letter from J M Joass to J Abercromby 1904.

The cist, as described, is still exposed in the face of the old quarry into the gravel mound, which is now afforested. The beaker and twelve 'shale objects' are on display in Dunrobin Museum.

Visited by OS (N K B) 15 June 1976.

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