east-lothian-1924/05-041

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN.

Settings of Small Stones. - In the Whitadder district are three different
settings of stones enclosing small irregular areas (Nos. 244, 245, 246). Neither the
purpose nor the period of these constructions is known, but the stones of which
they are formed bear a striking resemblance to the stones in the circles near Zadlee
and on Spartleton Edge.
Rock Sculpturings. - Only three rock sculpturings have been noted, the
first a group of three cup-marks on one foot of the standing stone at Easter
Broomhouse (No. 174), already referred to, the second an incised spiral of two
turns ending in a recurved bifurcation on a boulder at the crossroads at
Cockles Smiddy near Haddington (No. 80) and the third of five concentric
circles at Leaston House (No. 84). On the hills many stones are met with
bearing hollows which strongly resemble artificial cup marks, but these may
be expected wherever greywacke is the material.
Hut Circles and Small Cairns. - In every one of the counties surveyed by
the Commission, both in the north of Scotland and in the south, hut-circles
with small cairns near them have been recorded. Although there is no
record of any of the cairns having yielded up human remains, it is believed
that these may be some of the sepulchral monuments of the people of whose
habitations the hut-circles are the survivals. From the fact that these con-
structions are so often built in close proximity to the round cairn of Bronze
Age date, it was believed that they were so far contemporary. Recently
a hut circle in Ayrshire has yielded up fragments of a clay vessel resembling the
Bronze Age beaker type apparently confirming the accuracy of the hypothesis.
Several groups of hut-circles and cairns are met with in the same district as the
stone circles, cairns and small settings of stones, the finest and most numerous group
being on Kingside Hill (No. 234) within 300 yards of a circle (No. 240) and
two large cairns (No. 231). They occur at an elevation of about 1000 to
1100 feet above sea-level, rather higher than in Galloway and the north
country, where they seem to keep between the 600 and 900 feet contours.
A number of graves of this period, besides those mentioned in the cairns,
have from time to time been found. A short cist lined with slabs containing
a human skeleton was found in the Pishwanton Wood, Yester. Four short cist
burials with urns were uncovered in the vicinity of Carlkemp, N. Berwick. Three
urns of the food vessel type preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities were
found along with the remains of a human skeleton in a short cist on the farm of
Duncra Hill, Pencaitland. A cinerary urn from Quarryford, Garvald, and frag-
ments of another, which was found with human remains at Tranent, are now in the
National Museum as well as a food-vessel urn from Humbie Mills, another from
Gullane Links and a third from near Dunbar. An important Bronze Age burial
site is noted in Art. No. 31.
A kitchen-midden at Tusculum, North Berwick, and another on the links
north-east of Gullane have been identified as Bronze Age sites, probably the first
inhabited sites of that period to be recognised in Scotland. The two sites
have been excavated, each yielding up numerous fragments of pottery and a
few flint implements as well as food refuse. Much of the pottery was of
the Bronze Age beaker type, and a portion of one of the bases of a vessel
from the first mentioned site bore the impress of two grains of wheat, on which
the vessel had been placed before it was fired, when the clay was soft.

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