The Use and Reuse of Stone Circles

by Richard Bradley

  The excavated artefacts

  Pottery from the 1855 excavation

  Alison Sheridan

  As noted above, three cinerary urns were found during Dalrymple’s excavation, and were subsequently acquired by the then-named NMAS. All had been found in an inverted position, containing cremated human remains. Stuart’s and Coles’s accounts of the findspots of two of these urns, and of their contents, differ but since the former was written in May 1856, shortly after the excavation had taken place, it is assumed to be the more reliable than Coles’s, published in 1901. To avoid any further confusion, these urns and the ones found in 2011 will henceforth be referred to as ‘Urn 1’, ‘Urn 2’ etc., starting with the most complete of the urns found in 1855.

  Urn 1: Cordoned Urn

  Description: NMS X.EP 5. Complete Cordoned Urn (Fig. 5.15); height 295 mm, rim diam. 250–255 mm, maximum diam. (at upper cordon) 280 mm, base diam. 137 mm; wall thickness c.11 mm just below rim, 26 mm at base.

  The rim has a rounded top and a steep, narrow concave internal bevel. Below the rim the body swells out in the uppermost quarter of the vessel’s height to its broadest point, marked by a horizontal cordon, then narrows to a fairly broad base; a second horizontal cordon lies just above the urn’s mid-height. Both cordons had probably been applied. The base has a low internal omphalos and the wall-base junction, both on the interior and the exterior, is fairly sharp. The area between the rim and the top cordon is decorated with impressions of fairly thick twisted cord (up to c.2 mm wide and of variable depth), arranged as a frieze of running lozenges, fringed at the top and bottom by a horizontal line. The vessel had been coated with slip on the exterior and interior prior to being decorated, but the interior slip is thin. The surfaces are uneven and on the interior coil joint hollows are clearly visible. The exterior is light brown, slightly orange in some areas, with a blackish firing cloud extending unevenly as far as the inter-cordon area; the interior is a light brown to grey-brown. The core colour is not clearly visible. There are patches of a very thin black organic encrustation level with the upper cordon on the interior, and also on the exterior; these may represent sooting from the firing. The clay contains abundant gritty sand, clearly visible on the upper part of the interior and including some angular fragments of quartz. There is also a light grey mineral, represented by subangular fragments up to 7.5 × 2.5 mm; a black mineral; angular fragments of a black and white speckled mineral; and mica platelets. The overall density of mineral inclusions is estimated at c. 20%.

  Figure 5.15. Urn 1, Cordoned Urn. (a) General view: note unevenness of surface; (b) detail of cord-impressed decoration; (c) view of interior, showing gritty fabric, black firing cloud and thin patches of organic residue, possibly sooting (Alison Sheridan).

  Figure 5.16. Urn 2. Note the use of both incision and twisted cord impression to make the decoration. A paper label on the back states: ‘Found in a circle on the Hill of Tuach near Kintore 1856. A Watt’. (Photo: Alison Sheridan; drawing: Marion O’Neil).

  Urn 2: Cordoned Urn

  Description: NMS X.EA 138. Large fragment from the upper part of a large Cordoned Urn (Fig. 5.16), with an estimated rim diameter of c. 330 mm and a maximum estimated diameter, at the upper of two horizontal applied cordons, of c.360 mm. The wall thickness is 10–11 mm.

  While larger than Urn 1, this vessel shares several points of similarity, including the presence of two cordons and of a decorative scheme, located between the rim and the upper cordon, that features criss-cross lines framed above and below by a horizontal line. The rim shape is also similar: pointed at the top, with a narrow concave bevel on the interior. The technique of decoration differs, however, in being predominantly incised and in its uneven, crude appearance. There are stretches of twisted cord impressions in the place of incised lines: one of the criss-cross lines, and parts of the two horizontal lines, have been made in this way. Both surfaces had been slipped. The exterior is uneven, with fingertip hollows and wipe-marks, possibly from the use of a bunch of grass to help wet-smooth the surface; there are also pinch marks on the fairly pointed cordons. The exterior is a medium, slightly reddish brown with a dark grey firing cloud extending unevenly down to the inter-cordon area. The core is a blackish-brown, becoming lighter towards the rim. The interior is a dark brown with a blackish band, including a thin sooty encrustation, extending from the rim to just below the upper cordon. The inclusions are similar to those noted in Urn 1, with abundant sand and a white mineral which is either quartz or feldspar. There are also fragments, up to 6 × 4 mm, of granite or a granitic rock, consisting of black and white minerals plus mica. The overall density of inclusions is at least 15%.

  Urn 3: Urn of indeterminate type, possibly collared (not illustrated)

  Description: NMS X.EP 6. This is represented by just three fairly small sherds, of which two conjoin; the largest sherd measures 56 × 37.7 × 13.5 mm thick.

  The sherds, and the small amount of cremated human remains that accompany them in the Museum, were acquired by NMAS from the Earl of Kintore in 1856. The sherds are undecorated body sherds, with hints of a thin slip on both surfaces. The largest piece curves slightly, and is arguably more likely to have come from the concave neck of a Collared Urn (cf. Urn 4) than from the lower belly of a narrow-based urn. The exterior colour is a light, slightly pinkish brown; the core, light brown to light grey; and the interior, light grey with very thin patches of a blackish-brown encrustation. There are traces of a thin slip on both interior and exterior surfaces. Lithic inclusions are abundant (15–20%) and comprise sub-angular fragments, up to 8.5 × 8 mm, of a dark grey matte stone, together with subangular fragments of a medium-grained, speckled black and white stone. Many inclusions protrude through the external surface.

  Pottery from the 2011 excavation

  Alison Sheridan

  Urn 4: Collared urn

  This almost intact pot, lacking just its base, was found inverted (Fig. 5.14); around a third of its rim had been staved in, presumably during the process of its burial in a pit, and is now detached from the rest of the pot (Fig 5.17). There are also some loose sherds from the lower body. The pot survives to a height of 265 mm, and its rim diameter is 185–215 mm, the mouth being oval. The diameter at the pot’s lowest surviving point is c.120 mm, and the wall thickness is 13.5 mm at the neck and 14–15 mm at the lower belly. The rim has a shallow internal bevel, 15 mm wide. The collar, 50 mm deep, is slightly concave and has a sharply-defined lower edge; it slopes out from the rim. Below this, the gently-concave neck (c.43 mm deep) also slopes out and its junction with the belly, at the pot’s broadest point (c.225 mm in diameter), is fairly crisply defined. Both the interior and exterior surfaces had been covered in a slip, through which some lithic inclusions protrude; irregularities in the exterior surface are clearly visible in Figure 5.17, while on the interior there is a hollow at the neck, several fingertip dimples, and horizontal wipe marks. The exterior is a mid to dark brown, slightly reddish in parts, and the core and interior are dark brown. There is a very small amount of blackish organic residue on the interior at the lowest surviving part of the pot. The lithic inclusions consist of angular fragments, up to 7 × 6 mm, of a blackish matte crystalline rock, plus subangular fragments of white and clear quartz up to 15 × 9 mm, subangular to rounded fragments of a dark grey micaceous stone, and a very few fragments of a speckled black and white stone, at an overall density of 15–20%. These inclusions represent a combination of naturally-present inclusions and fragments of deliberately-added crushed stone.

  Figure 5.17. Urn 4 immediately after excavation (Richard Bradley).

  It is possible that the loose sherds grouped as SF 19 and SF 91 (not illustrated), found in the topsoil above Features 9 and 11, belong to the missing base and lower body of this urn and, as suggested above, had become detached from it and shifted up to 3 m during Dalrymple’s excavations. Those in SF 19 consist of 20 sherds, 20 fragments and seven loose lithic inclusions; the largest sherd comes from the wall-base junction and
indicates that the diameter of the base had been 110–120 mm. Wall thickness is 13 mm. The pot had been slipped on the exterior and interior. In colour and inclusions, these sherds offer a reasonable match for Urn 4; they do not match the other urns described here. The SF 91 finds comprise two friable spalls, with encrusted black organic material on the interior surface of one and a speck of cremated bone attached to the interior of the other, confirming the pot’s use as a cinerary urn. The interior surfaces are black and the core, black-brown; the interior surface had either been wet-smoothed or coated with a slip.

  Urn 5: Cordoned urn

  This pot was recovered complete; it had been buried in an inverted position (Fig. 5.14). There is a wide crack running down from the rim (Fig. 5.18). The urn is 245 mm high, with rim and base diameters of c. 263 mm and c. 110 mm respectively, and with a moulded horizontal cordon a little over half way up the body, above which is a band of decoration. Wall thickness ranges from c. 7.5 mm just below the rim to c. 17 mm at the base. The rim is rounded and slightly inturned, with a hollow running just below it on the interior; on the outside, the decorated zone below the rim bulges out before curving in to where the cordon had been pinched out. Below that, the belly slopes down towards a slightly pedestalled base that is flat on the exterior and has an omphalos on the interior. The wall-base junction is fairly sharp on the exterior and rounded on the interior. The profile of the urn is slightly asymmetrical, with the base not quite centrally located. The decoration extends from c. 26 mm below the rim to just above the cordon and consists of a band of incised triangles, fringed top and bottom by single horizontal lines of impressed twisted cord, up to 2 mm wide – the latter having been created prior to the incised decoration (Fig. 5.18). There are also two short arcs of cord impressions within the incised areas, probably made by impressing a finger with a cord over its tip into the clay, either deliberately or accidentally. The incised triangles are fairly roughly executed; two had been left blank, three had been filled with cross-hatching, one contains vertically-nested chevrons and the rest contain sloping hatching. Prior to decoration, both the exterior and interior surfaces may have been coated with a thin slip. The exterior had been fairly carefully smoothed, although there are fingertip-hollows below the cordon and a few lithic inclusions protrude; the interior undulates where individual coils had been added, and there are fingertip-hollows, possible scrape marks and protruding lithic inclusions. The exterior is a medium brown, slightly reddish, with small dark grey patches on the upper part, while the interior is a mottled rich reddish-brown and black, with patches of black organic residue encrusted on the rim and upper body. The core colour is not visible. Inclusions consist of subangular and angular fragments, up to 6 × 2 mm in size, of a speckled white and black crystalline stone, along with fragments of a black mineral; the estimated inclusion density is c.15%.

  Figure 5.18. Urn 5. (above) Immediately after excavation (Richard Bradley); (below) detail of decoration, showing use of twisted cord for the horizontal lines and incision for the oblique lines (Alison Sheridan).

  Discussion of the cinerary urns

  Alison Sheridan

  The assemblage of urns from within the Tuach circle thus comprises three decorated Cordoned Urns (Urns 1, 2 and 5), one definite, undecorated Collared Urn (Urn 4), and a possible Collared Urn with no signs of decoration (Urn 3). Despite variations in their shape, Cordoned Urns 1 and 2 are united not only by having two cordons, but also by sharing a simple decorative design consisting of running criss-cross lines that form vertical lozenges.

  The Collared Urn (or Urns) join the scatter of this type of cinerary urn in north-east Scotland, lying at the northernmost limit of its distribution (Longworth 1984, fig. 42). In common with the others found in north-east Scotland, Urn 4 belongs to Longworth’s ‘Secondary Series, North-Western style’ (Longworth 1984, 30–35) and, like most of these others, it is undecorated. Comparanda include Pot 5 from Broomend of Crichie, just 4.5 km away to the northwest (Sheridan 2011, 49 and illus. 1.47); three urns from the enclosed cemetery at Loanhead of Daviot, around 14 km to the NNW (Longworth 1984, plates 225e and 232a and d); and the undecorated Collared Urns from pits 007 and 034 in the cemetery at Skilmafilly, around 27 km to the NNE (Johnson and Cameron 2012, 6–7, 11 and illus. 5 and 7). The radiocarbon date obtained from cremated bone associated with Urn 4 (3500±30 BP, SUERC–36749, 1906–1743 cal BC at 95.4%), like that obtained from cremated bone associated with the possible Collared Urn, Urn 3 (3393±38 BP, SUERC-56458, 1870–1566 cal BC at 95.4%), falls well within the overall range of dates for Scottish Collared Urns and is comparable with the range of dates obtained for the Skilmafilly urns of this type (Sheridan 2007b, fig. 14.1).

  The three Cordoned Urns (Urns 1, 2 and 5) form part of a cluster of Cordoned Urns in north-east Scotland, this type of cinerary urn being more abundant than Collared Urns in this part of Scotland (Waddell 1995, fig. 11.3). Regional comparanda are once again easy to find, as at Haddo House Estates, c. 21 km to the NNE (Waddell 1995, fig. 11.1.9); ‘Aberdeenshire’ (Waddell 1995, fig. 11.2.20); Seggiecrook, c. 21 km to the northwest (Callander 1908, fig. 1); and Skilmafilly (pit 013: Johnson and Cameron 2012, 8–9 and illus. 5). Much closer by, the accessory vessel in the form of a small Cordoned Urn, found on the summit of the Hill of Tuach and described above (NMS X.EE 50), should not be forgotten. The radiocarbon dates of 3406±38 BP (SUERC-56457, 1873–1617 cal BC at 95.4%) and 3405±30 BP (SUERC-56458, 1862–1622 cal BC at 95.4%) obtained from cremated bone from Urns 1 and 5 respectively fall well within the range of dates for this type of urn (Sheridan 2007b, fig. 14.5).

  Metalwork from the 1855 excavation

  Alison Sheridan and Trevor Cowie

  As noted above, it appears that items of metal had been associated with all three of the urns found in 1855, even though the evidence for this in Urn 1 is limited to copper staining on some calcined bone fragments. The absence of any fragments of metal from Urn 1 could be taken to indicate that the object in question had been small, and had either corroded away entirely in the urn, or else had been consumed in the funeral pyre. (The copper staining of bones during the cremation of a body has been demonstrated by one of us (J. A. S.) through an experimental cremation of a pig.)

  The copper alloy objects found in Urns 2 and 3 might also have been small; the fragments that survived to be reported upon are certainly small and, according to Dalrymple, all three had been burnt: ‘the first instance, according to Dr Stuart, of such an occurrence’ (Dalrymple 1884, 324). According to Stuart’s account (1856, xx), Urn 2 had contained a single fragment (which Coles later described as being ‘about an inch square’; Coles 1901, 194) and Urn 3 contained ‘two small fragments of bronze, very brittle’ (Stuart 1856, xx). (The attribution to Urns 2 and 3 is reversed in Coles’s account but, as noted above, Stuart’s publication, written shortly after the excavation, is likely to be the more reliable record.) The present whereabouts of the fragment ‘about an inch square’ is unknown; Coles’s account made it clear that it had not accompanied the other Tuach finds into the NMAS (Coles 1901, 194 footnote 1) and it is assumed to be lost.

  Some confusion had surrounded the whereabouts of the two fragments from Urn 3. Their original entry into the National collections in 1857, as part of the acquisition of items from Dalrymple’s excavations, is recorded in the list of donations published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 2 (1854–57), page 429: ‘Two Fragments of Bronze found in an Urn dug up in a Stone Circle at Tuack, near Kintore’. However, the museum’s published catalogue (NMAS Catalogue, 1892) makes no mention of them, leaving their present-day identification in doubt. One distinct possibility is that they are in fact represented by the entry on page 184 in that Catalogue referring to a ‘portion of bronze’ listed as EP 24 and said to be from Rayne, Aberdeenshire – a reference to the stone circle at Old Rayne, which was another of the sites investigated by Dalrymple (Welfare 2011, 151 and figs 4.19–4.21). As no metal items are recorded as having been found at Ol
d Rayne, a simple mis-attribution of the bronze fragments’ findspot in the 1892 Catalogue may now be suspected.

  The two fragments now assumed to be from Tuach Urn 3 (NMS X.EP 24) are both brittle and had been distorted by fire; their surfaces are blistered. Each has what appears to be modern damage along one edge, possibly from sampling, but while they are likely to be from the same object the two pieces do not conjoin. The larger of the two measures 22.5 × 24.4 mm, with a thickness ranging from 1.5–3.2 mm where the edge has curled back on itself; the smaller measures 25.3 × 16.3 mm, with a thickness of 1.2–2.3 mm. While they are too small to allow an unequivocal identification of the artefact in question, it had clearly been a thin blade. It could conceivably have been a razor, like the object found in the Cordoned Urn, Urn 5, in 2011, but an alternative identification as a small knife blade cannot be ruled out. On the one hand, support for the ‘razor’ interpretation is offered by the fact that the associated cremated remains are probably contemporary with those from Urn 5, and by the possibility that Urn 3 might also have been a Cordoned Urn – an urn type whose commonest metalwork association is a razor (Kavanagh 1991, 83; Waddell 1995, 120). On the other hand, the fragments are somewhat thicker than those of the Urn 5 razor, suggesting perhaps that they are more likely to have come from a knife. Indeed, a comparable object may be the so-called ‘knife/razor’ – possibly a reused knife – found inside a Collared Urn from Gilchorn, Angus (Jockenhövel 1980, no. 2; see also Needham 2015, fig. 3.1.11). Here, the associated cremated human remains produced a radiocarbon date (3370±60 BP, GrA-18693, 1880–1500 cal BC), similar to that for the Tuach Urn 3 (Sheridan 2007b, fig. 4.12 and 183). The Gilchorn blade has a pair of rivet notches. The largest fragment from Urn 3 has a broad, deep hollow along one side, but at 17 mm wide this is arguably unlikely to have been a notch or hole for a rivet, as it is around three times wider than those found on knives/razors (Jockenhövel 1980; Needham 2015) and may simply be an effect of the heavy burning which the object has undergone.