argyll-1971/01-053

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE BRONZE AGE

been linked with those from Brackley (No.5), Balnabraid (No.14 cist4) and examples from
Arran, to form a group related to the Irish Bowl series of Food Vessels and described as
Mauchrie Vases. (1) These vessels seem to belong to the mid-second millennium B.C., and in
Kintyre the distribution of objects such as jet necklaces and Food Vessels, as well as the
grooved cist-slab, suggest that the east coast of the peninsula, along with Arran, Bute and the
Kilmartin area of Mid Argyll, were integral parts of a cultural province around the Firth of
Clyde during this period. The west coast of the peninsula on the other hand does not seem to
have been subjected to such strong influences from this area. A similar regional difference
between the two sides of the peninsula has already been noted during the Neolithic period.
Cinerary Urns dating to about the middle of the second millennium B.C. and rather later
have been found at two places (Nos.14 and 62, 4), but other examples of this type of vessel are
probably represented among unspecified "urns" now lost, e.g. those from Balinakill (No.55)
and Campbeltown Gas Works (No. 62, 1 and 2). In the last instance the "urn" containing a
cremation , was accompanied by a riveted bronze dagger (P1.7a) of a type dated to the 16th or
15th century B.C. At Inverary Castle there are twenty-eight amber beads which are said to
have been found with a burial at Balnagleck (No.58), but the position and the circumstances
of the discovery have not been recorded.
While somewhat overshadowed by the outstanding assemblage of cup-and-ring markings
which occur further north in the Lochgilphead-Kilmartin district of Argyll, Kintyre neverthe-
less contains one of the heaviest concentrations of this class of rock-carving in Scotland.
Fifteen examples of cup-and-ring markings are here recorded together with some ninety
instances of plain cup-markings. Their distribution (Fig.5) is mainly confined to the western
half of the peninsulas, but significant numbers of plain cup-markings occur in the north-east
(Skipness parish) and a smaller group exists in the south-east (Glen Lussa). All the cup-and-
ring markings and the great majority of plain cup-markings are found on detached boulders,
but six groups of plain cups occur on natural rock surfaces and two groups on standing stones.
The precise date, affinities and purposes of this type of rock art are as yet unknown but,
largely due to their association with Food Vessel burials in a few instances, they have usually
been assigned to the Brponze Age, (2) On the other hand the current excavations of the passage
grave at Newgrange, Co. Meath (3) where cup-and-ring markings have been found alongside
passage-grave art, suggest that the Galician series may be considerably earlier in origin than has
usually been supposed. Until, however, a complete corpus of the two art styles is available for
the British Isles (4), their relationship and significance cannot be fully assessed.
Little can be said about the dates or affinities of the thirty-four standing stones (Fig.2),
since the majority of them stand in isolation. But at Beacharr (No.134) the largest standing
stone in the peninsula is situated within 30m of a chambered cairn (No.3) and at Barlea
(No.132) a round cairn (No.15) lies only 20m away. At Ballochroy (No.57) a cist, which was
formerly covered by a massive cairn, is in close proximity to a line of three standing stones, and
on the same alignment; a similar arrangement may have existed at Machrihanish (No 42),
while at Kilkivan (No.34) the association of a standing stone with a cairn has already been