stirling-1963-vol-1/05_056

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE BRONZE AGE
The Neolithic monuments and relics are plotted on the distribution map (Fig. 3) as
follows:
1. Clyde-Carlingford chambered cairn, Stockie Muir (No. 12).
2. Chambered cairn, remains of, Cameron Muir (No. 36).
3. Chambered cairn, approximate site of, Craigmaddie Muir (No. 32).
4. Chambered cairn, approximate site of, Craigmaddie Muir INo. 32).
5. Chambered cairn, approximate site of, Strathblane (No. 35).
6. Western Neolithic pottery find, Bantaskine.
7. Secondary Neolithic pottery find, Mumrills.

3. THE BRONZE AGE
The monuments and relics that date from the Bronze Age occur mostly in three areas within
the county. The largest of these assemblages, in the vicinity of Stirling, and the smallest, in
the lower Carron valley, suggest an extension of the colonisation from the east coast by means
of estuary and river highways that has been noted further to the south. ¹ The third group lies
in upper Strathblane and the adjacent part of the valley of the River Kelvin, ² and forms part
of a broad group of monuments and relics of the Bronze Age centred round the estuary and
the lower valley of the River Clyde. These three main concentrations indicate that in the
Bronze Age the population had increased and expanded beyond the areas occupied in
Neolithic times, while a thin spread of remains also appears in the upper reaches of the Rivers
Forth and Carron and of the Endrick Water, and in the lower part of the valley of the River
Avon. Crouched burials in cists are recorded from all these areas. Most of the cairns are on
open cultivable ground, and may have been close to or within areas of settlement.
Four Beakers have been found in Stirlingshire, one of Class B and three of Class C ³ : two
of them were found in cists in cairns, both probably in secondary burials (Nos. 2 and 6), one
at Shankhead farm (Pl. 2A), and the other (No. 270 in the P.S.A.S. reference just quoted),
a chance find, from the area between the village of Cambusbarron and the south-west
margin of the plateau of King's Park, Stirling. Imprecise records exist of the discovery of
numerous burials and relics of the Bronze Age in this ground, including, in addition to the
Beaker, at least 5 Food Vessels, five Cinerary Urns and five cists.
The exact circumstances in which four of the Food Vessels from the Cambusbarron site
and one from the Touch estate were found are not recorded; the fifth from Cambusbarron,
like one of the two from Camelon and the one from Glenorchard in the south-west of the
county, was in a cist. The other Food Vessel from Camelon was not in a cist. The Cinerary
Urns occur in both the north-east and the south-west concentrations. A battle-axe and a large
stone knife were recovered from the cairn-burial at Craigengelt (No. 9); but the gold objects,
now lost, that were found at the same time seem, from the description, to have been of much
later date.⁴ The only gold object recorded in Stirlingshire that can be assigned to the Bronze
Age is the armlet from Bonnyside (Pl. 4E). This is a massive article of round section, with

1 Inventory of Roxburghshire, p. 11.
2 P.S.A.S., lxix (1934-5), 352 ff.; T.G.A.S., ix (1940), Pt. IV, 309 ff.
3 P.S.A.S., lxviii (1933-4), 186, No. 250; ibid., 188, No. 270; T.S.N.H.A.S., xlix (1926-7), 91 ff., and unpublished.
4 Annals, i, 405 f.

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