Meldon Bridge
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 129(1999), 1-118 Meldon Bridge centrthir:a e th df eo millenniu m BCn i Peeblesshire Stephen Speak* & Colin Burgess^ with contributions by T B Ballin, D S Brown, R Coleman-Smith, GreeneT K GriffithsA J , JohnsonM , HodgsonR N , LukeA D , , A MacSween, J Price, J E Roberts, M Savage & J Weyman ABSTRACT Rescue excavations extensivean on cropmark confluence the site Lyneat the of Water Meldonand Burn in the 1970s revealed several episodes of activity. A limited Mesolithic presence is indicated by the stone finds, but more intensive use is attested from the early/mid fourth millennium BC. Widely scattered groups of pits contained Impressed localWarethe of style. Radiocarbon dates chart this activity early/middownthe to third millennium whenBC, massive a timber up long m wall, and 600 tomheight,4 in constructedwas promontory ha shut to 8 offthe between Lynethe Waterand Meldon Burn. A timber avenue led into the enclosure on the north-west; standing posts and stones and settings of posts and stakes were erected; and cremation burials took place in the interior. No cultural material certainlycan associatedbe with this probably phaseit and lasted centurya less.or largeA stockade within mainthe enclosure datedcouldbe not with certainty. disturbedA cist burial, yielding pendant,ajet 'slug' possibleknifeand Food Vessel sherds, havemay been interredof one as the final acts thisin phase. Renewed activity mid/latecamethe in second millennium whenBC, the extensive an usedsite was for cremation cemetery. This involved erecting rows posts,of some standing in pits containing cremations. There was also a burial in a rough cist, and two cremations deposited in Cordoned Urns.
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