Dec 23 2009
Prehistoric Scotland had links to lands overseas
 Upper Largie Footed Food Vessel Pic: Culture 24 |
Back in February 2008, Culture 24 reported on a discovery made in Upper Largie which provided exciting evidence of 4,000 year-old links between prehistoric Scotland and the Netherlands. Upper Largie is near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute and the original excavations took place in 2005. |
Analysis of the pots by Alison Sheridan, of National Museums Scotland, has revealed early international-style Beakers of the type found around the lower Rhine, which is the modern-day Netherlands and a strange hybrid of styles that suggest Irish and Yorkshire influences.
These finds are very rare.
said Martin Cook, the AOC Archaeology Project Officer, who oversaw the excavations in 2005.
I think there are three or four other examples that early in Scotland. We initially didn’t realise how unusual they were, as it is so unusual to find three beaker ceramic vessels in the same feature.
The actual structure was very unusual, there’s only been one other grave excavated like that in Scotland – you just don’t get features like that generally.
The excavations revealed two graves within a complex Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual landscape composed of monuments including an Early Neolithic cursus (long earthwork) and an Early Bronze Age timber circle.
The grave is so early and the style of ceramic is so rare for this period that it’s either an immigrant or a first or second generation descendant who still knows these techniques. The pots are made from local material which certainly suggests an immigrant or a second generation person.
Travel at this time would have been difficult with few established tracks and thick forests covering much of the British Isles – much of it populated by some dangerous wild animals. Seaward travel to or from Yorkshire and Ireland to pick up these influences would have been the slightly easier option.
I think it just re-emphasises the importance of Kilmartin as a centre during this time.
added Martin.
For more information about the work of AOC Archeology Group, see www.aocarchaeology.com
To read the full article, please go to Culture 24.
