Document record MAB55572 - BORROWSTONE QUARRY, KINGSWELLS

Site of a cist (Borrowstone 4), one of three discovered in 1983 (also NJ80NE0033 and NJ80NE0034).

Site of a cist (Borrowstone 4), one of three discovered in 1983 (also NJ80NE0033 and NJ80NE0034). Excavation showed that it was constructed from a variety of stone slabs and it appeared that the slabs had been previously disturbed. The term cist comes from the stone-built coffin-like box. This cist contained a stain of a crouched inhumation, lying on its right side with its head to the west and facing south. Fragments of a northern beaker and two flint flakes were also found. Some preliminary research suggests that the direction the body faced and the side on which it laid was of importance and differed according to the sex of the dead. However due to the small number of the cists that have been excavated and recorded it is not possible to say this for certain. There is also not a sufficient ratio of male to female remains found in cists to prove this conclusively. Early evidence suggests that perhaps the males were lain on their left side and females on their right. Six short stone cists were found on the site of the quarry at Borrowstone Farm from 1976 to 1984, indicating that the 'Beaker' culture was well established in the vicinity during the Bronze Age. See also NJ80NE0025, NJ80NE0027 and NJ80NE0042 for other cists found in this quarry.

AAS/GR/85/CT179 - 345, AAS/GR/85/CT179 - 345 (Ground Photograph). SAB36790.

THE SCOTSMAN, 0000, THE SCOTSMAN, 16/12/83 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1819.

COUNCIL FOR SCOTTISH ARCHAEOLOGY, 1985, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND 1984, p.13 (Bibliographic reference). SAB8213.

SHEPHERD, A, 2012, STEPPING OUT TOGETHER: MEN, WOMEN AND THEIR BEAKERS IN TIME AND SPACE' IN ALLEN ET AL (EDS) IS THERE A BRITISH CHALCOLITHIC? (Bibliographic reference). SAB1775.

May 30 1974 , NJ80N 2415229, NJ80N 2415229 (Air-vertical Photograph). SAB36335.

Record last edited

Aug 12 2024 12:27PM