Excavations at Tulloch Field (MPK2854) and Blackford (MPK17956) have produced a range of flaked lithic artefacts and coarse stone tools that include sandstone flakes, quartz flakes, flint flakes, a perforated stone, an anvil stone, a whetstone and two saddle querns (Thoms and Halliday 2014; O’Connell et al 2021).
Of particular note is a fragment of a cannel coal ‘napkin ring’ dress accessory in Middle Bronze Age Structure 2B at Blackford (Hunter 2021).
Such objects are thought to have been used in pairs, as large ornamental ‘eyelets’ for thong or cord fasteners for cloaks. Hunter’s review of such items (1998) has made clear that they are a feature of the Early to Middle Bronze Age of southern Scotland and northern England. He notes that the Blackford example sits at the northern edge of the distribution. Its discovery in a structure that has produced dates ranging from 1370–1123 BC to 1309–1091 BC (O’Connell et al 2021, 35) provides valuable dating evidence for this artefact type; it is the latest dated example. An unfinished bead, which is also of cannel coal, was found in a Middle Bronze Age palisaded enclosure at Blackford (MPK18619; Hunter in O’Connell et al 2021, 51 and illus 28); this suggests the working of locally-available cannel coal on the site.
