Gordon Moss

Fragments of pottery found in Gordon Moss, which lies about 1km to the south-west of Gordon village, are thought to have come from a beaker of Bronze Age date.

Beakers are usually S-shaped in profile with a simple rim, and often show distinctive patterns of decoration, often incised or impressed into the clay of the vessel. This particular example from Gordon Moss was decorated with cord impressions over the whole of the vessel, a type known to archaeologists as the 'All Over Cord' type.

Beakers were so named by the Victorian antiquarians because they believed the vessels found in burials were containers of drink for the dead. Beakers are found on settlement sites and in burials, though the vessels found in the latter appear to be of finer quality.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT64SW 23 634 425.

Fragments of a beaker of all-over cord type from Gordon Moss (name: NT 634 425) are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession No: EG 82).

D L Clarke 1970.