Ashgrove

NT39NE 3 3523 9990, 3528 9989 and 3527 9989

(A: NT 3523 9990; B: NT 3528 9989; C: NT 3527 9989)

Bronze Age Cists found AD 1963 (NAT)

OS 1:1250 map, (1966)

Three or four short cists were discovered in July 1963 during construction work on a housing scheme at Ashgrove farm. Excavated by Miss Henshall, their positions are indicated on plan.

Cist A, made of four split sandstone blocks, was found on 2nd July; it measured 4' x 2'71/2" - 2'3" x 2'7" deep, with a cover-stone 6'7" x 5'3" x 101/2". All the joints were luted with clay and more clay between the cist and cover-stone sealed the cist effectively, keeping the interior dry and free of soil. It contained the crouched inhumation, probably of a male age about 55, accompanied by an Early Bronze Age dagger and a beaker (Clarke's S4 type). A deposit of black crumbly matter lay over the skeleton and cist floor, and a layer of plant material, 30cm x 5cm, lay in front of the skeleton's chest. A radiocarbon date of 3046 +/- 150 B.P. was obtained from it. This is much younger than expected, for the grave can hardly be later than the first phase of the Wessex culture, and should belong to the first half of the 16th century BC, or perhaps slightly earlier.

Cist B, found two days later, in the afternoon, was ransacked early on the following morning. The sandstone capstone was broken up; its size is unknown, but it was 6" deep. Internally the cist measured 4'3" x c. 1'9" x 1'11" deep, oriented ENE-WSW. There was no clay luting. The cist was full of soil. Various small pieces of bone were subsequently recovered from the bottom of the cist and the ground nearby, indicating that there had been a well-preserved skeleton, and there were also some sherds of a food vessel, of a gently tripartite form, decorated with cord impressions and grooves.

Cist C was found a few weeks later during bull-dozing operations, and measured about 3' by 2'. The workmen riddled the soil but nothing was found.

Another cist was found some days before Cist A was recognised. A large slab had been observed about 430' N by E of Cist A. It seems that this is the capstone of a fourth cist. It was not investigated, having been concreted over in the meantime.

The finds were treated in the laboratory of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), and were presented to Kirkcaldy Museum by Fife County Council, while two copies of the dagger were purchased for the NMAS.

A S Henshall 1966; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1967; A S Henshall 1968; D L Clarke 1970; J M Coles 1971.

(Flat dagger of Butterwick type; probably bronze). Flat dagger; rounded heel with central rivet-notch, two rivet-holes, three plug-rivets still in position; omega-shaped secondary hilt-mark; bevelled edges; traces of leather sheath on blade; horn hilt, when found still attached to blade, survived as two horn plates with rivet-holes; pommel carved out of single piece of 'ivory' with three small rivet-holes. Length (blade) 13.4cm, length (blade with hilt and pommel) 21cm, width (blade) 5.7cm.

S Gerloff 1975.