lanarkshire-1978/03_036

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

cairns and one of the henges are all situated. Several distinct types of long cairns have been
recognised in Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles, but in the absence of excavation
neither of the Lanarkshire examples can be classified precisely. It is, therefore, uncertain
whether their affinities lie with the small group of chambered cairns on Stockie Muir and
Craigmaddie Muir, Stirlingshire, or with the same extensive group in the south-west. ¹
It has been suggested that the circular or oval earthworks termed 'henges' were regional
centres for ritual or other social activities in the later Neolithic period. They are currently
divided into two classes according to the number of entrances. Henges of Class I, which occur
in the third millennium BC, have only a single entrance, while those of Class II, dating to the
late third and early second millennia, possess two opposed entrances. ² The henge monuments
of Lanarkshire, Normangill (No. 169) and Weston (No. 170), both belong to Class II, as
does the only fully excavated example in Southern Scotland, at Cairnpapple, West Lothian. ³
One of the most remarkable monuments in Scotland is at Blackshouse Burn (No. 171),
where what has formerly been a particularly massive stony bank encloses an area of 6.5 ha
(16 acres). The work is patently not any kind of fortification or settlement site, and the fact
that it has been deliberately laid out to incorporate the twin heads of the burn suggests that
it was designed for ritual purposes. ⁴ Although different in construction, notably in the absence
of a ditch, it compares in size with such late Neolithic ritual enclosures as Avebury, Wiltshire
11.5 ha : 28.5 acres) and Mount Pleasant, Dorset (5.6 ha : 13.8 acres). ⁵
Amongst the polished stone axeheads are two made from Antrim porcellanite, ⁶ and another,
together with a roughout, which are probably of Lake District stone. ⁷ Several axeheads,
identified as examples of a Cumbrian type, confirm the importance of the Lake District axe-
factories to the Neolithic people of Lanarkshire; these axes come from Carnwath, Crawford-
john, Tinto and Wiston. ⁸ The distribution of stone axes reveals a marked concentration to the
east of the River Clyde between Carnwath and Lamington; near by, in the adjacent county
of Peebleshire, a large number of flint and stone objects have come from the vicinity of
West Linton and, although the activities of Adam Sim of Coulter and other local mid-19th
century collectors are to some extent responsible for the density of the finds, the concentration
of axes appears to confirm the evidence of the few surviving monuments that the Biggar-
Carnwath-West Linton area was intensively occupied in the Neolithic period. ⁹ Polished stone
axes have also been found in smaller numbers elsewhere in Lanarkshire, particularly in the
parish of Lesmahagow and in the lower valley of the Clyde. A carved stone ball found at Biggar
Shiels is an example of a type of artifact associated with the later Neolithic period in north and
east Scotland.

1 Hensall, A S, The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, ii (1972),
3-6, 27-30.
2 PPS, xxxv (1969), 112-33.
3 PSAS, lxxxii (1947-8), 68-123.
4 For the significance of springs and streams in the religious
beliefs of later prehistoric peoples, cf. GAJ, iii (1974), 26-33;
Ross, A, Pagan Celtic Britain (1967), 20-33.
5 Burl, A, The Stone Circles of the British Isles (1976), 323. In
this connection it is, perhaps, worth noting that Mayburgh,
a much smaller embanked enclosure which is regarded as
being related to henge monuments, also has no ditch (Royal
Commission on Historical Monuments (England), Inventory
of Westmorland, p. 253).
6 From Dunsyre (PSAS, xcvi (1962-3, 364) and Coulter
(Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 3rd series, xv (1952), 55).
7 Both from Crawford (Hunterian Museum, University of
Glasgow).
8 PPS, xxx (1964), 39-55.
9 Inventory of Peebleshire, i, p. 13.

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