Archaeology Notes

Event ID 720499

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/720499

NT77NW 8 c. 733 751

An 'immense cairn' in a field on Skateraw farm (name: NT 733 751) was removed some time between 1806 and 1814. 'There was found at the bottom of the pile a large stone measuring 9ft in length, 5ft in width, and nearly 3ft in thickness. Beneath it was a grave, the sides composed of four slabs neatly fitted together.' In the cist were the remains of a skeleton, accompanied by an Early Bronze Age flat dagger and 'pieces of a substance resembling fragments of a blue glass bottle'. The dagger blade and its associated gold pommel-mount are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS Accession nos EQ 237 and EQ 238 respectively).

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1893; A S Henshall 1968; J M Coles 1971

No further information was obtained from enquiries at Skateraw.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 23 March 1966.

(Bronze dagger of Masterton type). Flat dagger, W-shaped heel with central 'tang'; two rivet-holes with plug-rivets still in position, also two rivet-notches; V-shaped hilt-mark; blade broken in two; edges and tip damaged; pommel-mount made of ribbed sheet-gold; present length 14.8cm; present width 5.5cm. NMAS EQ 237-8.

S Gerloff 1975.