- South West Scotland has revealed a varied range of evidence for ritual practice during the Bronze Age. Sometimes this is obvious and easy to identify; on other occasions, it may be less tangible and more open to differing interpretations. Dominating our understanding are undoubtedly the varied ways in which people treated their dead, with funerary sites still the most widely investigated form of Bronze Age monument across the region.
- Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Chalcolithic, the short-lived period which ran roughly between 2500 BC and 2200 BC. This formed the transition between the Late Neolithic, with its large communal monuments and the predominance of Grooved Ware pottery, and the Early Bronze Age. In the latter, the circulation and exchange of copper alloy objects appear to have played a significant role in establishing and maintaining social relations. One of the most important elements of the Chalcolithic is the first appearance of individual burials, almost invariably inhumations. These are often accompanied by ‘Beaker’ type pottery, archery equipment, various dress ornaments and unalloyed copper objects, in particular knives or awls. It is unusual to see all of these items represented in one grave; instead, these categories are present in various combinations, with some graves potentially not including any items of material culture at all.
- Evidence for these ‘Beaker’ burials is rare in South West Scotland, though some recorded antiquarian finds appear to fall within this group. A possible Beaker burial was discovered at Courthill, and another was excavated by Bryce at Dunan Beag. This particular burial was placed in the mound of a pre-existing Neolithic chambered cairn, and this link between earlier monuments and Beaker pottery is far from unique within the region. Isolated sherds of Beaker have also been incorporated into deposits relating to several chambered cairns, including Cairnholy I and Mid Gleniron I, Lochhill and Dunan Mor, Arran. Beaker sherds were also recovered from a feature associated with the henge monument at Curriestanes, where they were dated to 3875 ± 45. This date placed the deposit within Needham’s Later Chalcolithic Period (Needham 2012, 9).
- Only one example of these individual burials has been recovered in recent times from Lockerbie Academy. The site, which was close to the location of a much earlier Neolithic timber hall, revealed an early dagger grave. This has been grouped amongst Needham’s ‘Association Groups’, falling towards the end of the Chalcolithic (Needham 2012).
- From the Early Bronze Age onwards, the dominant mortuary rite across the region was cremation, providing some level of continuity with the preceding Neolithic. This appears to be the only unifying feature of Bronze Age burial practices: in other aspects, a significant degree of variation is evident. These differences may reflect changing practices over time as well as space, but Bronze Age cremations almost always follow the Chalcolithic precedent for individual burial. Graves are closed after interment, and while burial cairns and cemeteries might then be reused for new cremations, there is no evidence for regular revisiting or the reuse of skeletal material as a social or cultural resource. On some sites, however, like West Cairngaan (Stevenson 1987) graves may have been re-opened for the placing of new interments, in the fashion similar to the re-use of modern family crypts.
- Although unusual, inhumations are not unknown. Two of the burials at Lockerbie Academy appear to have been inhumations; at least one was early in date, deriving from late in the Chalcolithic. Some important burials of this kind were likely excavated by early antiquarians and hence all the important details are now lost. One such example was probably interred at Haylie House, Largs. Other sites which have been excavated in modern times confirm the continuation of this practice, at least to a limited extent. Sylvia Stevenson excavated a single crouched inhumation placed in a cist within a natural sandy knoll at West Cairngaan, Kirkmaiden, in 1986. This particular burial disturbed an earlier cremation, but no artefacts were present (Stevenson 1987).
- The actual pyre sites have proved more elusive, but some potential contenders have been identified. Scott-Elliot excavated one candidate at Townfoot Farm, near Glencaple, revealing a substantial spread of wood ash which returned radiocarbon dates of 1980 ± 90. These placed it within the Early Bronze Age. No burnt bone was recovered, which casts some doubt on its role as a cremation pit, but three stone hammer stones or pounders were recovered. Scott-Elliot suggested that these objects strengthened the cremation pit theory, arguing that they could have been used to fragment the burnt bones before they were gathered together for placing in urns or organic containers. The absence of cremated skeletal material at the site was, he argued, the result of local soil conditions. It has also been suggested that soil may have been used to quench the pyre after burning. This was the suggestion made by the excavators of a site at Carronbridge, which produced a mixed fill of burnt bone and soil in a pit which gave a radiocarbon date of 1285 BC to 1020 BC.
- Another potential pyre site was identified during developer-led excavations undertaken by Rathmell Archaeology at Arran High School. Here an area of burning was identified close to a site which revealed several cremations accompanied by a range of ceramic vessels including Collared and Cordoned urns.
- Beyond an apparent preference for cremation, much variation is evident in the mortuary pathways which carry the deceased from pyre to grave. In some cases, the bones were picked out carefully so little, if any, pyre debris found its way into the burial; in others, ash and other pyre debris were transferred to the grave. Some individuals were buried with grave goods: ceramic vessels of various types are most often present, with Food Vessels, Cordoned, Collared and Encrusted Urns potentially represented. Occasionally, smaller accompanying vessels of the types known as Incense Cups or Accessory Vessels are also present. Other items of material culture include bronze daggers, razors (perhaps relating to the treatment of the body before burning), awls, shale beads, or worked items of flint or bone. In other examples, the deceased is buried with no items of material culture present, or at least none that survived either the pyre or the burial. Some bones show green staining that suggests a copper or copper alloy object was once in contact with the body. Sometimes items accompanied the deceased onto the pyre; sometimes they were placed later into the grave with the cremated ashes.
- On some occasions, it was deemed unnecessary to include the whole body, with token cremations recovered from some funerary monuments such as Park of Tongland. On rare occasions, multiple individuals were placed in a single pit. The use of stone-lined cists appears to have dwindled after the earliest part of the Bronze Age, with the cremated ashes usually placed within pits. These could, on occasion, be lined with stones.
- Often the cremated ashes were placed within a pottery vessel. The urn might be placed in the ground base-upwards or base-downwards, and it is likely in many cases that the opening was covered by either a stone slab or an organic covering. This would keep the ashes inside. Occasionally, the ashes were placed within the cist but outside the pottery vessel. The pottery forms used in funerary contexts have never been found in domestic contexts. It has even been suggested that some vessels were fired on the pyre, on the basis of the poorly-fired character of the ceramic. One possible example of this on-pyre firing was an Accessory Vessel recovered during excavations at Cairnderry (Sheridan 2007, 107).
- Choices were also made regarding how the burials were placed both within the wider landscape, and also in relation to one another. Sometimes the site was marked with a circular stone cairn, sometimes with a ring cairn where the central area was apparently not mounded. Sometimes there is no suggestion of cairn material, but the burials were placed on a prominent natural feature such as a glacial mound or low hillock. In some instances, the same location might be revisited and reworked regularly over a relatively short period, creating a site like Park of Tongland. This site – described as ‘multi-sequential, but not multi-period’ by its excavators – began as a flat cremation cemetery marked with two standing stones. It later evolved into a kerbed cairn with standing stones, seemingly within a period of 50 years, with a date range spanning the period 1480 to 1530 BC. Other excavated sites, such as Boreland Cottage have suggested an association with circular ditches, perhaps representing the only surviving traces of earthen mounds or barrows. Cairns can also vary greatly in size. Some can be massive, measuring around 24m in diameter and upstanding to a height of several metres, while others may be as small as 1m in diameter, such as an example excavated at Flint Howe.
- In some instances, no trace of any kind of enclosure or marker feature has survived. As a result, we must question whether or not any form of marker ever existed there in the first place. It is possible that by employing prominent features within a natural landscape already imbued with meaning, the choice of a specific location was in itself sufficient. Examples of such unenclosed cremation cemeteries include Barassie and South Boreland.
- What is evident, however, is that all these varied funerary practices are characteristic of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Evidence for how the people of the Late Bronze Age disposed of their dead is more elusive. One example of a later date was provided by the excavation of an earthen barrow and ring-ditch at Kerricks Farm. This revealed a bucket urn with distinctive perforations beneath the rim, perhaps intended to hold an organic cover in place. This held the cremated remains of a juvenile woman. A second cremation, also consisting of the ashes of a juvenile woman, was found scattered and possibly disturbed nearby. The date for the urned cremation fell within the Late Bronze Age (1430 to 850 BC), making it unusually late. More examples of these perforated bucket type urns have been recovered from South West Scotland, for example at Nelson Street, Largs, where once again the cremated remains of multiple individuals were present. It is, however, more widely argued that these distinctive urns remain in use until the later centuries of the 2nd millennium BC (Cowie 2005), which would suggest that the date of the Kerricks Farm cremation burial falls within the earlier end of the date range.
- As well as studying the way in which Bronze Age people buried their dead, we can infer more about how they saw their place in the world through their monuments and material culture. A particularly dramatic example is presented by the stone circles of the Early Bronze Age. These represent the end of a long tradition of megalithic architecture which began in the Neolithic, and often these stone monuments occupy the same locations as timber predecessors. Sometimes they are placed within the boundaries of henge monuments. They may even represent an indigenous Late Neolithic reaction to challenges posed by a contemporary ‘Beaker’ presence. Many of these stone circles appear to have had some function as markers for celestial events, though whether this represents ‘astronomy’ in the way we understand it today is debatable. But it suggests some interest in the heavens and the skies, a concern which may not be out of place within communities that were deeply concerned with the agricultural cycle and the annual rhythms of their world. A number of these sites can be found across the region: amongst the best known are the Machrie Moor stone circles, though there are also examples at Torhouskie and Glenquicken Moor. These Early Bronze Age monuments represent the final phase in a long history of ritualisation of the landscape through the creation of monuments using earth, stone and timber. There is also some evidence that some of the earlier timber monuments of the Neolithic were re-used and reworked at this time. Excavations at the timber circles of Dunragit, for example, revealed that the final phases of use took place during the Early Bronze Age. Another potentially comparable site is the circular timber setting at Hunterston. This produced Middle Bronze Age dates and revealed indications that its various elements had been reworked on several occasions.
- Some aspects of Bronze Age ritual practice may also be inferred from the way artefacts -and in particular metal objects – were used and discarded. The removal of metal objects from circulation and their deposition in special places may reflect the discharging of social debt through the offering of gifts to gods and ancestors. In South West Scotland, we see several instances where such practices may have generated the metalwork distribution pattern that we see today. One outstanding example is the cluster of Early Bronze Age metalwork finds recovered along the line of the Maich Water (Cowie 2004), which forms the modern boundary between Ayrshire and Renfrewshire). These finds – which include the Gavel Moss hoard and a broadly contemporary bronze tanged spearhead from Langstilly – may suggest an early concern with boundaries which endures more widely throughout the Bronze Age (Barrowclough 2013). A later hoard – the Drumcoltran hoard of Middle Bronze Age rapiers – may also be an example of similar practice. Placed in the enclosure ditch of an earthwork, it may have been deposited somewhere which was viewed in some way as liminal or ambiguous.
- Further examples of how metalwork could be deposited in special places can be seen in the several hoards of objects found in association with large rocks located in prominent places. These may be associated with cliffs or hillsides. Examples include two flanged axes from Pirnmill and the Glentrool hoard. The deposition of fine metalwork in wet places such as rivers and lochs is also characteristic of the Late Bronze Age in particular. This may show a concern with deities or spirits associated with bodies of water or natural places. In South West Scotland, there are several examples where votive deposition can be put forward as an unproblematic explanation: the Lugtonridge hoard with its five or six sheet bronze shields is one, and the fragmentary cauldron from Carlingwark Loch may also fit into this category. While very few swords have been recovered from the major rivers, several Middle- and Late Bronze Age spearheads have been recovered from wet contexts. This pattern of deposition seems to be prevalent in Dumfries and Galloway in particular. It also seems highly likely that the hoard from Dalduff was not the by-product of an industrial process, but resulted instead from a process of selection followed by deliberate deposition (Knight 2022, 289). This utilised a material – scrapped, or rather ‘decommissioned’ bronze objects – which was symbolically charged, representing another form of offering, albeit one which is scarcely encountered in this part of mainland Britain.
- As the Bronze Age progressed, there was less emphasis on the ritualisation of the landscape and a greater emphasis on creating more permanent – some might say monumental – domestic structures. This was coupled with increased formalisation of the agricultural landscape. Perhaps this suggests a more secular approach to living, which focused upon the practical concerns of growing crops, raising livestock and manufacturing the implements needed for all these tasks. Alternatively, it could support the possibility that the concerns associated with these tasks were expressed through ritual practice. This might focus on fertility and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth that was a consistent part of living in an agricultural community. This would explain why seemingly mundane objects such as bronze implements and scrap metal might be viewed as ritually-charged material. This had, on occasion, to be disposed of in a certain proscribed way or was considered appropriate for use in the ritual practices that accompanied important events or milestones in Bronze Age life and death.