Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 133

Report describing the results of excavations undertaken within the burial chamber and entrance area of the chambered cairn. The chamber had been investigated in the early years of the twentieth century, and the work described here was conducted because of the threat of tidal scouring of any remains which had survived previous attention. The excavation revealed evidence of disturbed Neolithic and Beaker funerary deposits within the two compartments of the chamber. The burial chamber appears to have been used over the same time period both by humans as a burial place and by otters as a holt. the application of palaeoenvironmental studies has allowed the formation processes of the deposits and artefacts in the chamber to be understood, permitting the character of the burial rites to be better appreciated. The past and present landscape setting of the chambered cairn is considered briefly. Includes sections on: Lithic material, The human remains, Animal bone, Fish remains, Carbonized plant macrofossils.

Excavations in 1996 revealed a Bronze Age cemetery; inside a ring-ditch were two adjacent graves with wooden coffins, one a boat-shaped hollowed tree-trunk, the other plank-built. Both had probably contained crouched inhumation burials. Grave goods in the former included a bronze dagger of `Butterwick' type whose scabbard of wood and cattle hide produced a date of c. 3385 BP; those in the latter included an `Irish Bowl' Food Vessel, believed to date to c. 2000 BC. Both items indicate links with Ireland. Also inside the ring-ditch were: a short stone cist; a pit containing cremated human remains accompanied by three burnt barbed-and-tanged arrowheads and a mandible fragment, probably of a dog or fox; and three pits, at least one of which might have been an inhumation grave. Outside, and to the east, was a second short stone cist with a Beaker; to the west, a cluster of truncated pit graves containing cremated human bone and pyre debris, and in one case the remains of an urn and accessory vessel. One of these pit graves, dated to c. 3360 BP, contained the remains of an adult with cut marks on the skull. The cemetery is around 700m from, and on the same gravel ridge as, the multi-phase site at Stoneyfield, Raigmore, whose later phases featured a cist cemetery and a pit with a Cordoned Urn cremation burial. Some residual lithic evidence for Mesolithic activity in the area was also recovered. Includes sections on: Introduction; The bronze dagger from the log-coffin: introduction; The bronze dagger from the log-coffin: the metal of the dagger; The bronze dagger from the log-coffin: the scabbard; Pottery; The chipped stone; The cremated human bone; Charcoal identification; Plant remains from the cremation-related deposits; Pollen analyses; The radiocarbon dates; Discussion and conclusions.

Rescue excavation of human remains was carried out at Evergreen, Longniddry, prompted by a chance discovery by workmen. Three crouched inhumations were found, one of which was in a cist. The disturbed and disarticulated remains of two further individuals were also identified. The burials were associated with a concentration of stones and pebbles which may have been the remains of a cairn. Radiocarbon dating yielded dates of 1690 to 1310 cal BC at 2-sigma range. Other burials identified during previous excavations indicate these burials are part of a more extensive Bronze Age burial ground. Includes

Survey and excavation at Manish Strand, Ensay, in 1965 identified two midden deposits which date to the later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Two `pit' burials containing Late Bronze Age human inhumations were also discovered during the course of the excavation. Includes sections on: Radiocarbon dates; Bronze Age pottery; Chipped stone artefact; Worked bone; Mammal bones; Bird bones; Human remains; Appendix: Bronze Age pottery catalogue.

In 1825 the Rev John Skinner, an Anglican clergyman from Camerton in Somerset, walked the length of the Antonine Wall from east to west, as part of an extensive Scottish tour. He recorded his observations at length in a journal and prepared daily a series of pencil sketches which constitute an invaluable record of the monument at a fixed date. His sketches include sculptures and inscriptions subsequently lost, and a few sites otherwise unrecorded. He also visited the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow in order to view its collection of Roman stones.

Three long cist burials were discovered during road widening along the A1 near Dunbar. As a result of plough damage only one, poorly-preserved skeleton survived, identified as either a female adult or a young, slightly-built male. An unusually early radiocarbon date (c. 1850 BP) derived from the remains of this individual must be viewed with caution due to poor collagen survival. Includes a section on The skeletal remains.

A previous paper (97/1908) described the castle in its final form in the 1690s and its gradual destruction over the following century. Since then a study of the Bishop of Moray's castle of Spynie has pointed to similarities between it and Glasgow. Examination of other sources has documented two periods of building activity which have escaped previous notice. The first involves repairs and alterations carried out by the Duke and Duchess of Lennox after 1598; the second work undertaken by Archbishop Ross between 1680 and 1686. In addition further light is thrown on Robert Thomson's role in the destruction of the castle from 1715 onwards. Includes Appendix: accounts relating to building work 1599-1600.

Archaeological studies of Hirta, the main island of the St Kilda archipelago to the west of the Western Isles of Scotland, have debated the location and character of the settlement demolished during the Improvement phase of the 1830s. The paper argues that archaeological evidence for the clachan is recoverable, and that it is in very good agreement with the drawings made by Acland and Atkinson in the early nineteenth century.

Summaries of three lectures presented at meetings of the Society: The making of classical Edinburgh (on the development of the New Town during the late-eighteenth to early-nineteent century); Bodies under the floor: prehistoric roundhouse life at Cladh Hallan, South Uist (an examination of four human burials found among the foundation deposits of a group of Bronze Age roundhouses); New work on the origins of the Scots of Dál Riata (argues that archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence indicates that the Scots of Argyll did not migrate from Antrim around AD 500, but were native inhabitants of the area).