A Bronze Age Cemetery at Aberdour Road, Dunfermline, Fife
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BronzA cemetere eAg t Aberdouya r Road, Dunfermline, Fife by Joanna Close-Brooks, M Norgate and J N Graham Ritchie INTRODUCTION On 31st March 1972 a short cist was uncovered during earth-moving work on the Scottish Special Housing Association building site, Aberdour Road East, approximately 2-6 km SE of Dunfermline, Fife (NT 11738637). In the immediately surrounding area five further burials were discovered shoro tw , containintn cistsur n a , g cremate isolateo d tw bone d d an , patchef o s cremated bone (fi. g1) The first cist was found by Mr M Miller, when the earth-moving machine that he was driving dislodged the capstone. Mr Miller then began to remove the contents with a shovel and discovere skull a ddiscovere Th . reportes informeywa o site estafth wh o d t polic n e o fdth d ean presse th . Martin Norgate, museum assistan chargn i t f Dunfermlineo e Museum calles wa , n di by a reporter on the staff of the Dunfermline Press and in turn reported the site to the National Museu Antiquitief mo Scotlandf o sgratefue Scottisar e e th W o .lt h Special Housing Association for permissio co-operatioinvestigate o nt th r Parryr fo sitd M e ef eth an no , their cler worksf ko , Trojan Plant Hire, and Alexander Hall and Son, contractors, Fife Constabulary (Dunfermline StationDunfermlinee th d an ) alse Press.ar o e gratefuW Miso Jacksont lH sE prepare o wh , d the illustrations Collins G Reedie r K writer Robertsoe variour T e M ,th r th M , o f M ,t s o sd nan appendices. Excavation of five graves was completed on 1st April with no serious loss of con- tractors' time sixtA . h grav discoveres ewa excavated dan lltn do h April possibls i t I . e thae th t SSHA may replace the stones of the cists as a feature of interest to the local population. The standing stone near Easter Pitcorthie (RCAMS 1933, 127, no. 208) has already been treated as suc hfeatura earlien a n ei r same phasth f eeo development . The original levels of the surrounding land had been disturbed during the building opera- tions but from a site plan kindly made available by the SSHA it would appear that the group of burial bure situates th sidS wa sn f higa e o ridgt w dth a h lo n poin eo a abou f D o tm 3 O 7 t running from Calais Muir Wood to join the Lyne Burn near Dunfermline. Previously the land beed ha n arable farmlan therevidencd o earlien y d an s ei an f reo discover sitee th . n (MNyo ) EXCAVATION The cists were situated to the NE of Mathieson Place (fig 1,3); three of them lay approxi- mately in a straight line and a stone setting with an enlarged food vessel was found a little to firse crematioo th tw tf cisto e Th .W n e depositth m 6 s1 wer d ef an cis o 1 som t W e SS 5- 5m SW of cist 1 respectively. The cists were made of rectangular slabs of a local carboniferous sandstone. I I PROCEEDING 2 12 SOCIETYE TH F SO , 1971-2 DUNDEE DUNFERMLINE FIRTH ! 0 10km '$Mjji&! i!gS=3^~' '————' ':*£fo' EDINBURGH FIG 1 Location map and site plan for Aberdour Road and Keavil, Dunfermline, Fife CLOSE-BROOKS, NORGATE AND RITCHIE: BRONZE AGE CEMETERY AT DUNFERMLINE | 123 WSWCisd , aligne an compose1 s t E ,wa dEN fouf do r slab measured san d0-4y b 0- 6m 8 m internall aboud yan t deptn 0-4i 5m h (fig 2intg ;e podu d beeth i t ha 13)n pi t I buil.a n i t natural gravel and the level on which the skeleton rested was slightly higher than the bases of slabse capstonee th .Th , whic beed hha n dislodge bulldozera y db substantiaa s wa , l slab measuring d betwee an 0- y b 8m 1- thicknessn n0-1d i 1m 0-2an 4m 7m . This cist containe dcrouchea d inhumatio buriae n sid th s lyin it ; probabls ei lN n witgo e bacs th hit o ykt adolescenn thaa f o t t female and is described in detail in Appendices 2 and 3. Fore-limb bones of young pigs were discovered about the knees of the skeleton. secone Th d beecisd tha n disturbe bulldozea capstony e db th d brokery an ela n some distance from it; one of the end slabs had also been dislodged (fig 2). The cist, which was aligned NE measured ha , SW d d abouan 0-3y t b 0-internall 8m 6 m depthconstructes n i 0- d wa 3ym an t I . d of four rectangular slabs with the side slabs inserted between the end slabs, in contrast to the constructio f cis . nThero 1 t e wer wedgo etw e stone cise t supportinth pi t n end-slasi E N e gth b and one behind the NW side-slab, but, apart from these, the pits of both cist 1 and 2 had been backfilled with sangraved dan l witstonew hfe s inserte provido dt e support capstone Th . f eo cis measure2 t betweed d an 0- y 1-2b 8m thicknessn i n0-d 5m 30-2m an 5m . There wero en signs of a burial in the cist but phosphate analysis tentatively indicated that an inhumation had been present (Appendi unusuan A . cisto x5) lshowtw s sectioe si featur e th th n ni f n o e A-B, fig 2; cist 2 had been constructed at a higher level than cist 1, which must have been built in quite int g gravel e steea odu th groun e t ppi Th . d time leve excavatiof th eo t a l n bear relationshio sn p to a second-millennium land surface, but the depth of the slabs of cist 1 suggests that the cap- stone too would have been completely contained within the pit. The ground level close to cist 2 suggests thacapstone th t e would als beloe ob lane wth d surfactime th f construction eo t a e . Ther thus ei reasoo sn supposo nt presence eth coverina f eo g mounsorty an .f do Abou weea t k afte discovere th r thesf yo e cists, further digging reveale outline dth n a f eo apparently roofless cist (no. 3) a little to the NW of no. 2, which had by this stage been removed, and it was unfortunately not possible to relate their depths into the gravel. Composed of four large slabs and aligned NE and SW, it measured 1-02 m by 0-54 m internally and about 0-5 m in depth. Althoug hnumbea stonef o r s survived aroun moute ciste dth th sig o ,f n therh o n s ewa of the capstone. The cist had been built in a pit, measuring about 1-75 m by 1-55 m, dug into the natural sand, and stones had been used to support the back of the S side-slab, although othere backe th th merel d f so ha y been supporte sandy db cornere thren cise I th . th f t eo f so wedge-shaped stones had been inserted to prevent any sand from trickling into the centre and als consolidato ot structuree eth cise tTh . containe remaine dth crouchea f o s d inhumationa , food vessel, a slug-knife, a strike-a-light and a piece of iron ore (figs 3 and 4). The body, which is discusse detai n dadolescenti n thaa s Appendicen f li o twa lai, d 3 nha d t wit;i an skule sh2 th l endW centre e , wherth th t f teeta e o eth h survived virtually intact bace th , k sidalonN e gth of the cist and the legs drawn up to the S. The pot lay in the S corner next to the skull, and the flint iro e objectwere th n or ed discoveresan pelvie th n dci area. Afte depositioe th r bodye th f n,o beecisd e th ha t n filled partl t leasya t with clean sand uppee th ; rfillinge thirth f do , however, was earthier, and it is possible that this was disturbed when the capstone, of which there was no trace, was removed. A radiocarbon date of 1631+40 be (SRR-292) was obtained from analysis of the femur; see Appendix 6. stonA e setting roun enlargen da d food vessel (no containin) .4 gcrematioa discovereds nwa , otheo tw rd crematioan n deposits were excavate recorded dan d during these operationse Th . cist-like setting round the enlarged food vessel was rectangular on plan, aligned E and W, measuring 0-4 m by 0-35 m and approximately 0-2 m in depth. The pot (fig 5) had been filled | PROCEEDING 4 12 THF SO E SOCIETY, 1971-2 with the cremated remains of an adult female and inverted over the floor slab. As there was no flooe bonth rvessele n eslao th likel s i f b o t i , outsid ym eitheri e eth r tha crematioe tth withis nwa n a bag or some other container which no longer survived, or that the rim of the vessel was covered in some waycrematee Th . d bone beed sha n carefully separated fro remaine mpyree th th f ,o s non f whiceo beed hha n deposite vessee th n di l (Appendi protective Th .