Burnt Bones Research Articles

Notice of the Discovery of Two Vessels of Clay on the Culbin Sands, the first containing Wheat and the Second from a Kitchen-Midden, with a Comparison of the Culbin Sands and the Glenluce Sands and of the Relics found on them

A broken pottery vessels found at Culbin Sands contained grains of carbonised wheat with a hammer-stone or grain pounder a short distance away. The artefacts lay on an old ground surface which had largely blown away. A flint scraper, some charred wood and two small fragments of burnt bone were also recovered. The grain had been threshed, as no ears of grain were seen. The sherds from a second vessel were embedded in a sandy matrix along with oyster, cockle, and periwinkle shells, and the bones of animals and birds, some of the animal bones being calcined. The date of the vessels is uncertain and they could be Bronze Age or Iron Age. A brief survey of earlier discoveries is presented.

Exploration of the Elbolton Cave

Exploration was continued until the end of December, 1890. The entrance to the Cave is through a shaft or pothole twenty feet in depth, situated at the foot of a small limestone scar on Elbolton, 1000 feet above sea level. The chamber, before the exploration commenced, was thirty feet long, and varied from seven to thirteen feet in width. The floor was fairly level with the exception of a heap of stones under the entrance On the surface nothing was observed but a few sheep bones of recent origin. The upper stratum, which varied in thickness from four feet at the east to seventeen feet at the west end of the chamber, is the only one wherein human remains have yet been found. It consisted of loose angular fragments of limestone, interspersed with large quantities of bones of the Celtic short-horn, the boar, dog, red deer, sheep, &c. The larger of the animal bones were split and broken, and were evidently used as food. Burnt bones and charcoal were found in three places. Three skeletons were discovered buried with the legs bent, and the knees close to the skull. The other human bones were more or less scattered. Most of the skulls were shattered, though two obtained from the east end are fairly preserved, and are good typical specimens of the long-head type. But the human remains obtained from the other end of the chamber and at a much lower level thirteen and fifteen feet below the floor (one lying ...

A Prehistoric Cemetery

A DUNFERMLINE correspondent writes that another cemetery of prehistoric times has been discovered on the estate of Pitreavie. About two and a half miles to the north-east of the former discovery a number of workmen were, some days age, engaged in collecting rough stones to form an embankment. Ere the work had proceeded far it was noticed that the stones, which lay on a moor, formed a circle, partly covering- a mound 200 feet in diameter. In the centre of the mound, and about 36 inches below the surface, a cyst measuring 46 inches in length and 24 inches in width was found. The cyst was three-parts filled with a dark mould, and in it was discovered a beautifully-formed urn which stands 5 inches in height and measures 6 inches across the mouth. There was nothing in the urn but soil, but in the cyst some large calcined bones were found. Explorations were continued in the vicinity of the cyst and within the stone circle, with the result that no fewer than eleven other urns were found. All these urns contained calcined human bones and much vegetable charcoal, both in dust and in pieces, and numerous pieces of burnt bones were also found in the mound—a circumstance which indicates that a good many interments had taken place without urns. The urns measured from 5 to 12 inches in height, are hand-made, and of the type usually known as “food-vessels.” They have everted rims, and are ornamented with varied designs, formed by oblique lines and dots on the upper part, and encircling projecting rings at the bulged part. The urns are of a reddish colour, but the pottery section shows a black interior with a mixture of coarse sand. There are several interesting features attached to the discoveries. In the first cemetery a row of cysts with an urn in each were discovered—circumstances which unmistakably indicate the predominance of inhumation over that of cremation. No bones were found in the urns. In the second discovery only one cyst was found, and eleven of the urns were simply buried in the mounds, and all contained burnt bones—facts suggestive of cremation. The second discovery corresponds more than the first with most of the prehistoric local cemeteries which have been laid bare in the county of Fife. The chronological relationship between the two kinds of interment—inhumation and cremation—as presented to us in the two Pitreavie cemeteries, opens up a most interesting field of inquiry to the enthusiastic archaeologist. Dr. Worsaae, the late distinguished archæologist, says cremation was the outcome of higher and more advanced religious principles than characterised the people of the Stone Age, who were in the habit of burying their dead in dolmens and other megalithic tombs, with food-vessels, weapons, ornaments, and such articles as were supposed to be serviceable beyond the grave. Founding upon Dr. Worsaae's idea, it is not unreasonable to assume that the two discoveries under notice belong to the Stone and Bronze ages. The urns are all in the hands of the proprietor of the estate, Mr. Beveridge, and are likely to be handed over to the National Society of Antiquaries.

Notice of a small Cemetery, containing Deposits of Cinerary Urns and Burnt Bones, on the Estate of Balbirnie, in Fife; and of a similar Cemetery, also containing Deposits of Urns and Burnt Bones, at Sheriff-flats, Lanarkshire

Notice of a small Cemetery, containing Deposits of Cinerary Urns and Burnt Bones, on the Estate of Balbirnie, in Fife; and of a similar Cemetery, also containing Deposits of Urns and Burnt Bones, at Sheriff-flats, Lanarkshire

Discovery of a Scottish Crannog

Discovery of a Scottish Crannog

XXIII. A Letter from John Gage, Esq. F.R.S., Director, to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., F.R.S., Secretary, accompanying a Roman Speculum, exhibited by Sir William Middleton, Bart.

The Roman Speculum exhibited, was, in December 1823, found on property belonging to Sir William Middleton, in the parish of Coddenham, in Suffolk. This elegant little ornament was brought to light by a labourer at work in an inclosure near the banks of the river Gypen, and with it were found a brown earthenware urn containing burnt human bones, and a small vessel of red pottery.

II. Illustration of some Druidical Remains in the Peak of Derbyshire, drawn by Hayman Rooke, Esq. By the Rev. Mr. Pegge

The stones marked 1, 2, in plate II. were taken out of the ground about A. D. 1760, in removing a large stone at Durwood near Hartle moor in the Peak; they lay by the side of a large urn, half full of burnt bones. They are flat at top, but somewhat convex on the under sides, and fig. 2. which Mr. Rooke has in his possession, is about four inches and a half thick. They are about a foot diameter, but fig. 2. is so much less than the other, that when laid upon it (and one cannot doubt but they were intended to be placed one upon the other), it could be turned round within the rim of it.

VI. Antiquities discovered in Lancaster, 1776. By Mr. West, Author of the “Antiquities of Furness.” Communicated by Mr. Lort

On sinking the cellars for a large house at the upper part of Church-street in this town, now building by Daniel Wilson, esq. on the site of which stood some very old houses (formerly called the Judge's lodgings), was discovered, at about six feet below the present surface of the street, a supposed Roman burying-place; as burnt wood, bones, and ashes, broken paterae, urns, Roman brick, gutter tiles, coins, horns of animals, &c. were found; also, two fragments of thick walls, at about five yards distant from each other, in a direction from front to back, and seeming to continue under Church-street, be-twixt which were several large stones, some of which were hewn. By this it may be conjectured, to have been a vault to deposit the ashes of the dead, and fallen-in, or pulled down, at some time, as there were found, within the walls, several pieces of urns, an earthen sepulchral lamp entire (the end of the spout where the wick came out was burnt black), broken paterae, burnt bones, ashes, a large human skull, Roman coins, &c. also, at the North-end a well, filled with hewn stones, but not meddled with.

I. Part of two letters of Mr. Thoresby, one to Dr. Martin Lister, Fellow of the Colledge of Physicians, and Royal Society; Dated leeds, Oct. 30.1697. the other to the Reverend Dr. Tho. Gale, Dean of York, and F. R. S. Dated leeds, Nov. 6.1697. about some Roman antiquities found in Yorkshire

I Have had pretty good Hap in adding to my Roman Curiosities, Two entire Urns, both of the Blewish Grey Clay, but different Forms, with some of the burnt Bones, and Two other Vessels of the Red Clay the letter of them is almost in the Form of the Roman Simpulum or Guttus .