peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_050

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: THE BRONZE AGE

collective burial being replaced by the custom of individual inhumation in a cist or grave,
sometimes beneath a round cairn or barrow. These single-grave folk also introduced new types
of pottery vessels, termed Beakers, while their skeletal remains exhibit pronounced physical
differences from those of the earlier Neolithic peoples.
No Bronze Age settlements have so far been identified in Peeblesshire, ¹ but more than one
hundred round cairns and barrows are recorded in the Inventory; this figure does not include
the group of small cairns on the North Muir (No. 70), which are thought to be the products of
field clearance. The term "cairn" is here used to describe both cairns built exclusively of stones
e.g. (Nos. 9, 10, 67) and those composed of a mixture of stones and earth (e.g. Nos. 26, 27, 33);
the term "barrow" is reserved for earthen burial-mounds. It is unfortunate that so little
scientific excavation has been done as yet in Scotland on Bronze Age cairns. The few examples
however, that have been systematically examined in recent years, notably that on Cairnpapple
Hill, West Lothian, ² have revealed that the internal structure may be extremely complicated,
and may reflect different phases of use extending over a long time-span.
Of the Peeblesshire cairns only one (No. 14) has been excavated. ³ The earliest burial found
under it was in a cist, and was accompanied by a Cord Zoned Beaker (Pl. 3A) and a sherd of
Secondary Neolithic pottery. The association of Neolithic and Beaker wares is comparatively
rare, and this instance confirms the generally accepted opinion that the makers of Cord Zoned
Beakers were among the first of the Beaker peoples to reach Scotland from the Netherlands,
probably at the beginning of the second millennium B.C. Subsequently secondary burials were
inserted into the cairn, some accompanied by vessels of Cinerary Urn type which probably date
to the latter half of the second millennium B.C. Thus the cairn may have been periodically in
use for the best part of a thousand years. Apart from No. 14, cist burials have been found under
seven cairns in Peeblesshire; two of the cists each contained a cremation in an urn accompanied
by a dagger (Nos. 16 and 35), while cremations are recorded from three others (Nos. 27 and 34),
and No. 13 yielded a stone axe-hammer.
One of the most interesting features of the distribution map (Fig. 1) is a chain of large
cairns in the West Linton-Dolphinton area which appears to mark an important prehistoric
route linking the Clyde valley with the estuary of the Forth. Leaving the Clyde at about its
confluence with the Medwin Water, the route skirted the south-west end of the Pentland Hills
where it is sign-posted by unpublished cairns at Newbigging, Stonypath and Easton in
Lanarkshire. After entering Peeblesshire its line is continued west of Mendick Hill by the two
cairns at Fernyhaugh (Nos. 16 and 17), the three on the North Muir (Nos. 46-48), and the two
at West Linton (Nos. 11 and 37). Thenceforward the route probably followed the south-east
edge of the Pentland Hills, aiming at the River North Esk, as is suggested by the cairns at
Gourlaw, near Rosewell ⁴ and at Mountmarle, near Roslin. ⁵
Of the remaining cairns, thirteen are situated either in the Tweed valley or on the hills immedi-
ately overlooking it, several others occur in tributary valleys, notably that of the Meldon
Burn. They are found on either side of the Biggar Gap and extending beyond it into the valley
of the River Clyde.

1 But see p. 23.
2 P.S.A.S., lxxxii (1947-8), 68 ff.
3 Ibid., lxv (1930-1), 363 ff.
4 Inventory of Midlothian, No. 146.
5 Ibid., No. 147.

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