argyll-1971/01-049

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

and situated at its broader end, the body of the cairn may also contain a variety of other chambers: these are usually set transversely to the long axis, and may, in some instances, represent earlier structures subsequently incorporated within the final version. In this final stage of their development, which probably occupied the latter part of the third millennium B.C., characteristics such as the deep concave forecourt, as typified at Gort na h-Ulaidhe (no. 7), reflect influences coming from Ireland.
When the typological development outlined above is studied in conjunction with their geographical siting it can be seen that, as a general rule, the simpler and earlier tombs are situated near to the coast on relatively low ground (usually under 45m O.D.), while the more advanced examples are to be found further inland and on higher ground (in several instances over 100m O.D.).
The three Clyde Cairns in Kintyre that have been excavated (Nos. 2, 3 and 5) have yielded a limited but significant assemblage of small finds. In 1892 six pottery vessels were recovered from the burial chamber at Beacharr (No. 3), and they have subsequently given their name to the most important pottery series, termed Beacharra ware, characteristic of the Clyde Cairns as a whole. The most recent assessment of Beacharra ware,1 which followed the re-excavation of the type-site in 1961, distinguished four basic types of round-bottomed, hand-made vessel; these are the lugged bowl (Pl. 3A), the plain bowl (Pl. 2C), the cup (Pl. 2B) and the carinated bowl contracted at the mouth (Pl. 2A). A typological progression for these four types is proposed, beginning with plain-rimmed cups and bowls, sometimes lugged and normally undecorated, and advancing to more elaborate vessels having more intricate decoration made by channelling, incision, stabbing or, more rarely, by impressed cord. The vessels from Beacharr itself would represent an intermediate typological stage in the development of this class of pottery, which may have been influenced to some extent by another type of Neolithic pottery which has been found in Clyde Cairns, termed Rothesay ware. Rothesay ware is not, however, represented in Kintyre. As well as at the type-site, Beacharra ware has also been found at Brackley (No. 5) and at Ardnacross2 (No. 2). A jet slider or belt-fastener and flakes of flint and Arran pitchstone from Beacharr, and a stone disc from Brackley, complete the list of small finds dating to the third millennium B.C. from the chambered cairns. For reference to the subsequent use of these cairns for secondary burials in the second millennium B.C., see infra, pp. 8 f.
While the information available at the present time about the Neolithic inhabitants of Kintyre comes predominantly from their burial cairns, some further evidence of their presence is provided by unassociated surface finds, comprising some twenty-five stone axeheads, seven leaf-shaped arrowheads of flint or chert, a flint "fabricator", a polished macehead and a carved stone ball. About 60% of these objects were found within a five-mile radius of Campbeltown and a further 20% in the parish of Southend, and this concentration in the southern part of the peninsula may serve to emphasise the general pattern of settlement already suggested by the chambered cairns. Some evidence of possible human activity is afforded by recent paleobotanical investigations of Aros Moss, 2 an area of peat-bog forming part of the extensive trough of low ground that stretches across the peninsula between Campbeltown and [Machrihanich]

1 PPS, xxx (1964), 150 ff: Megalithic Enquiries, 198 ff.
2 Nichols, H., Transations of the royal Society of Edinburgh, lxvii (1967-8), 145 ff.

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