Early Bronze Age activity in our area again tends to be represented mainly through burial sites. Pig bones have been found accompanying an Early Bronze Age adult inhumation at Almondbank (Stewart and Barclay 1997, 27); Cist burials at Gairneybank, Kinross and at Muirhall Farm contained sea urchin spines, which are possibly evidence for the exploitation of an oyster bed (Stewart and Barclay 1997, 43).
Bone was important as a raw material. Close-Brooks (1985, 142) has described two bone toggles and a pin, the species of origin unknown, among the contents of a cinerary urn excavated at Moncreiffe, located on the north side of the Phase 3 stone circle. While work on the urns from Kilmagadwood is ongoing, a burnt bone toggle has been identified along with the cremated remains of a child (Urn 7), antler or bone bead fragments in Urn 8 and possible sheep remains (Urns 8, 15, 19). There is also some evidence that animal skins had been used to cover the urns (Sheridan et al 2018, 11; 13).
At Sketewan, Balnaguard, a cairn of the Early Bronze Age, the cremated remains of a child included two trout vertebrae, which were possibly part of the stomach contents of the deceased (McSweeney 1997, 318). The central cist at this site also contained animal foreleg remains, possibly of red deer (McSweeney 1997, 318).
Research Priorities
Sites other than those associated with human burials are not found and evidence for animal husbandry is scant.
Deposition of animal remains with those of dead humans is relatively common and these are ripe for further study.