peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_052

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE BRONZE AGE

similar monuments in Perthshire. ¹ Recently at least one monument of this class has also been
discovered in Northumberland.
Nine enclosed cremation cemeteries are now known in Peeblesshire, and the first to be
discovered (No. 109), near Tweedsmuir, was excavated by the Commission in 1961. Its chief
characteristics consisted of a number of pits containing cremated remains and protected by a
low covering of stones. The area occupied by the pits was enclosed within a low stony bank,
8 ft. in thickness, which formed a ring measuring 32 ft. in internal diameter. There were no
grave goods. The archaeological evidence, however, was sufficient to link this site with a large
group of comparable structures, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, which occur widely through-
out the Highland Zone of England where examples are recorded from Derbyshire, Cheshire,
Lancashire, West Yorkshire, North Wales, Cumberland. and Westmorland. ² In Scotland they
extend from Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire northwards as far as Perthshire. A
valuable confirmation of the date suggested by the comparative archaeological material has
been provided by radiocarbon measurements obtained from sites in both Peeblesshire and
Dumfriesshire which range between about 1550 B.C. and 1300 B.C.
Cup-and-ring markings are represented only on the Hallyne slab (No. 100), but ring
markings without cups occur on two other slabs (Nos. 14 and 101), the former of which came
from the Drumelzier cairn mentioned above. The markings on this stone are unusually small
and shallow, but similar markings are known from Traprain Law ³ and from Harelawside,
Berwickshire. ⁴ Cup-and-ring markings have been reported from Soonhope, ⁵ and plain cup-
marks on the standing stone No. 104, and on a boulder near Castle Hill in the Manor valley, ⁶
but all these markings are in fact of natural origin.
Nothing definite is known of the date or affinities of the ten standing stones. Three of
them (Nos. 102-4) stand in isolation. The two stones on Sheriff Muir (No. 106) were originally
accompanied by a number of smaller stones set at regular intervals in an arc extending east-
wards, ⁷ and their proximity to the two cairns (Nos. 57 and 58) may indicate some association.
Again, at Tweedsmuir, the three stones described under No. 63 are only 80 ft. from the cairn
recorded in the same article, while less than 200 yds. to the south there are two small stones
(No. 105). The similarity between the Sheriff Muir and Tweedsmuir groups may not be
fortuitous. In both cases a group of large stones, a cairn, and a setting of small stones are sit-
uated in close proximity, and, if the suggested association between the stones and the cairn is
valid, the stones may be tentatively assigned to an early phase of the Bronze Age.
The stones circles (Nos. 107 and 108) probably belong to the Middle Bronze Age, but their
cultural affinities are not known.
Lastly mention should be made of the group of structures for which the term "ring
enclosure" is used in this Inventory. These structures were first described by Christison, ⁸
who, while unable to assign to them a definite date or purpose, suggested that they were
probably not sheepfolds as recorded on the early editions of the O.S. maps. His reasons for

1 P.S.A.S., xcv (1961-2), 134 ff.
2 Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society,
vol. 71 (1961), 15 ff.
3 P.S.A.S., lxix (1934-5), 135.
4 H.B.N.C., xxvii (1929-31), 390, pl. xxi.
5 P.S.A.S., xxxiii (1898-9), 365.
6 Ibid,. xxiii (1888-9), 141-2
7 Stat. Acct., iii (1792), 326.
8 P.S.A.S., xxii (1887-8), 204 ff.

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