lanarkshire-1978/03_042

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE BRONZE AGE

which they may be contemporary, but the cairn groups under discussion do not occur in
association with any known settlement sites.
Whereas the majority of the cairns are small in size, nevertheless a quarter of them measure
between 4.0 m and 9.5 m in diameter and would, if found in isolation elsewhere, be unhesi-
tatingly regarded as sepulchral monuments. The little that is known of the structure of the
cairns is not helpful: the presence of large boulders around the perimeter (e.g. No. 64, 7, A;
No. 113, 7, E and F) is not a diagnostic feature, and the numerous reports of the occurrence, in
Lanarkshire and elsewhere, of charcoal or other traces of burning on the old ground surface
(e.g. No. 113, 4) could equally be the result of funerary rites or of agricultural clearance. The
fact that many of the cairns contain a large proportion of earth (e.g. No. 74), and the presence
of what appear to be equally small barrows amongst them, argue against agricultural clearance
being the reason for their construction. Moreover, the small-scale excavations at Wester
Yardhouses-Hare Law (Nos. 113, 7, B and C) showed that, while the cairns were simply heaps
of stones containing no artifacts, analyses of the soil produced the high levels of phosphorus
indicative of the former presence of a burial. More positive evidence that the small cairns were
intended for funerary purposes is provided by the cists found within them at Wester Yard-
houses-Hare Law (No. 113, 3 and 7, D); another cist, of dry-stone walling, has been reported
at Horse Law (No. 64, 7). At Lupus (No. 81) a cannel coal 'pulley-ring', a type usually associ-
ated with Beaker pottery, was found when a number of small cairns were destroyed in the 19th
century.
In addition, it is perhaps significant that other structures of a ritual or funerary nature
sometimes occur within the clusters of small cairns: these include the two long cairns (Nos. 1
and 2), a ditched enclosure (No. 326) and a cairn with a concentric bank (No. 46, 3). The
tendency for small cairns to occur close to a large one has long been recognised ¹ (e.g. Nos.
46, 67 and 113), and the large stone cairns (No. 114) on the opposite bank of the Westruther
Burn from the principal series at Horse Law are strikingly similar to those already recorded
on North Muir Hill in Peeblesshire ² in close proximity to groups of small cairns. ³ (Fig. 3). In
Dumfriesshire, enclosed cremation cemeteries have been identified in the midst of broadly
similar groups of cairns, and the circular structures at Wester Yardhouses-Hare Law (No.
113, 8; Fig. 23, G) and Fall Kneesend (No. 56) may be funerary enclosures of this type, as,
conceivably, may be other small enclosures at Horse Law (No. 64, 7; Fig. 18, L and M) and
Windy Gate (No. 118, 2).
Taking all the evidence into account, including the radiocarbon date of about 3000 BC
from Chatton Sandyford, Northumberland, ⁴ a date within the Neolithic period seems likely
for the initial phase of these groups of small cairns in Lanarkshire. Quite apart from their
numbers, there is some reason for believing that the construction of such small cairns may have
continued for a considerable period of time; the excavation of a number of similar cairns at
Alnham, Northumberland, revealed that one covered a cremation and an area of burning
which were associated with a bronze pin dated to the 2nd century BC, ⁵ but no evidence for
such a late date has so far been found in Scotland.

1 Greenwell, W, British Barrows (1877), 419-21.
2 Inventory of Peeblesshire, i, Nos. 47-8.
3 Ibid., No. 70.
4 Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, xlvi (1968), 40.
5 Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, xliv (1966), 23-3.

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