A Late Bronze Age Find from Pyotdykes, Angus, Scotland, with associated Gold, Cloth, Leather and Wood Remains

Abstract

On the 29th October, 1963, a group of bronze objects was ploughed up in the ‘Old Road Field’, Pyotdykes farm, near Dundee, Angus (Nat. Grid Ref. NO 345348). The objects recovered were a bronze spearhead and two bronze swords (fig. 1). After news of the find had been communicated to the Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee, the area around the original find-spot was excavated by museum staff, and this yielded three additional pieces of bronze wire rivets from sword (2), but no other objects. Before the bronzes were revealed by ploughing, they must have been lying about 30 centimetres below the surface, just above a hard-pan layer which forms the subsoil in that part of the field.Cleaning and treatment of the bronzes was carried out at the museum, when a plug of material was extracted from inside the spearhead socket (see App. I). This was sent to Dr M. L. Ryder for examination along with two pieces of wood and leather which the farmer had found adhering to sword (2) (see Part III). Subsequently the wooden fragments were examined in the Sub-department of Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge (see App. II).