Document record MAB62518 - KEABOG, PITDRICHIE 1

Site of short cist beaker burial, revealed by gravel extraction in 1976 but which collapsed shortly after.

Site of short cist beaker burial, revealed by gravel extraction in 1976 but which collapsed shortly after. The cist slabs were of red sandstone, and it had a massive capstone. A large adult skeleton and broken Late Northern (step 5) beaker were recovered by police from raking from quarry floor, prior to the regional archaeologist being contacted. The cist had lain circa 1.2 m from the surface of the south face of a gravel hill which overlies a knoll of red sandstone. Nothing remained of the cist in situ, but the collapsed slabs were recovered and from them it can be estimated that the cist measured approximately 1m by 0.6 m and 0.5 m deep. Its alignment is uncertain. All the slabs were of the local red sandstone and none bore any traces of decoration. The skeletal remains were virtually complete and in an excellent state of preservation. They belonged to a muscularly well-developed adult male, about 174 cm (5ft 8ins) tall, aged at least 35-45 years at death, with considerable vertebral and dental pathology and possibly a skull injury which may have been the cause of death. In particular, the damage to the skull vault in the region of the right coronal suture may have been pre-mortem, in which case it may have been, or contributed to, the cause of death. There was evidence of a healed nasal fracture and the upper lateral incisors were lost some long time before death. There was very considerable tooth wear, with evidence of caries and of an abscess at the root of the first upper left molar. The vertebral bodies showed very extensive lipping in the lower mid-thoracic region, in the only cervical vertebra present and in the fifth lumbar vertebral body. Some degenerative change was also apparent in the superior aspect of the right and left acetabula. Associated with the burial was a pot, represented by the lower three-quarters of a well-made, evenly fired beaker. The rim and virtually all the neck are missing, the pot surviving to a height of 123 mm. The beaker is covered with an even, cream- or buff-coloured slip which in the undecorated zones has been burnished. The decoration is in three broad zones around the neck, belly and foot. The belly zone is fringed with shallow triangles which have been deeply impressed with a short comb. Between these fringes are eight panels each of which is different (although there are three pairs which vary only in details such as filling or orientation). The basal zone consists of three bands of vertical comb impressions between horizontal lines. This beaker belongs in Clarke's Late Northern (N3) group (1970), step 5 in the scheme of Lanting and Van der Waals (1972). A second cist was found a short distance to the north in 1977 (NO78SE0028).

Period Notes
Date from skeletal remains: GU-1122 = 3730 +/-60, calibrated using OxCal 4.1 (16/11/2012) to 2334 - 1949 BC. Beaker Dates: 1) OxA-V-2243-42 = 3831 +/- 28 BP, calibrated using OxCal 4.1 (16/11/2012) to 2458-2153 BC; 2) OxA-V-2243-43 = 3816 +/- 29 BP, calibrated using OxCal 4.1 (16/11/2012) to 2431-2143 BC.

BRUCE, M, 1987, SKELETAL REMAINS, PITDRICHIE CIST 1 (Bibliographic reference). SAB3756.

SHEPHERD, I. A. G., 1987, TWO BEAKER CISTS AT KEABOG, PITDRICHIE, NEAR DRUMLITHIE, KINCARDINE AND DEESIDE. , PSAS 117, pp.33-40 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1720.

Dec 10 1976 , PU 5329-08, PU 5329-08 (Ground Photograph). SAB12367.

Jan 1 1976 , AAS/GR/76/CT21-24, AAS/GR/76/CT21-24 (Ground Photograph). SAB32426.

RCAHMS, n.d., S KINC LIST, No110 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1512.

Nov 9 1976 , Untitled Source (Ground Photograph). SAB12368.

Record last edited

Sep 3 2024 11:10AM