Scottish Archaeological Journal is abstracted and indexed in the following: Excavation of two burnt mounds and a wooden trough near Ryeriggs, Fochabers, MorayGary Savory By positioning the cairn slightly off the summit, views would have been partially obscured from the north, but it would have been visible from the south and southeast. A number of artefact types have been found in association with collared urns. Modern contamination was recorded in all 19 samples and was composed of roots, spores, earth worm capsules, fly pupae and insect eggs. The ensuing development of the full tang swords during this period of change began to displace the rapiers, as they could be made more robustly and thus deliver more powerful blows than the rapier. The origin of the rapier is more than likely Spanish. Stone is however very fragile, and therefore not practical to be used as swords. The rapier sword was found locally near a site which had been inhabited for a period of at least 5,000 years, dating back from the Neolithic period to the present day. Archaeological literature refers to these as 'dirks' and 'rapiers', but despite the inherent inferences these names make with regard to use, they should truly be regarded as swords, and the progenitors of the lineage which continued through the many ages of man which were to follow. Frequent references to these first Bronze Age swords highlight their insubstantial hilting arrangement, and the relative flimsiness of their blades, and conclude that they were not serviceable weapons. Before bronze, stone (flint, obsidian f.e.) Fragments of an Early Bronze Age urn (see pottery) were also recovered from the re-deposited cairn material and these, too, may originally have derived from a now-destroyed burial within the cairn. They were not intended to cleave limb from body, or cause gross injury through force alone - they were weapons of more finesse. Indeed dating evidence can be rather difficult with regard to the four classes as one of each class has been found in association with each of the other classes in the hoards of Britain. The edges are bevelled, and it seems most probable that they underwent cycles of cold-working and annealing to increase their hardness and durability. Incredibly, they were both placed in the water as gifts to the gods. The remains from the third cremation, Context [017], originated from an individual older than the other two and probably adult. The longest and thinnest of these weapons fall into a sub-group called Type Lissane, an although these fine weapons are often used to exemplify the weapon type, they are much less robust than the majority of weapons. Selected on quality and durability. Of the miscellaneous deposits, ageing indicators from bone fragments recovered from between the stones in Cist 1 suggest that they could either have belonged to the primary or secondary burials, both of which were assessed to be from adolescents, or could comprise fragments from each. Home / Sold / Artefacts - Sold / Neolithic & Bronze Age / Bronze Age Rapier. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain.Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. The former is known to have occurred in the area (Ferguson 1794) when the digging out of large stones for building material was recorded from a large enclosure, most likely the Blackshouse Burn enclosure 900m to the south. Given the amount of redeposited material (009) occurring around the cairn, at a rough guess the cairn may originally have stood at about 1m in height, although the removal of stone from the site may have reduced this considerably. The raw material, based on three chert pebbles, was recovered as pebbles from fluvial environments or superficial geological deposits rather than from working outcrops (note Radiolarian chert is naturally occurring in the Southern Uplands and also present in superficial deposits to the north of the Southern Uplands fault, see Paterson & Ward 2013). Excavation instead showed that the lower cairn material and the cists and features beneath remained untouched. The hoard was found in chalk rubble, probably during the excavation of building foundations. Dating evidence recovered from the cremation suggested a date range between the late 22nd and mid 20th century BC, similar to the cremations recovered from within Cist 1. Its modern origins were inferred from the fact that its character differed markedly from the parent cairn material: the deposit was only moderately compacted, with no regular pattern of deposition evident amongst the stone component and residual lenses of topsoil (001) occurring on a regular basis. waterworn) cobbles of varying colour and texture. The bones had also been similarly subjected to a fairly marked degree of cracking, twisting and curved lateral splintering. Similar practices may have occurred at Broomlands, Kelso where two cist burials, with original inhumations of Early Bronze Age date (though separated by at least a century), had a Late Bronze Age inhumation subsequently inserted (McLaren & Wilson 2013–2014). A Bronze Age cairn and rapier find from Swaites Hill, Cloburn Quarry, South Lanarkshire, Phase 1: Initial Cist Burials & Possible Early Kerb, Phase 2: The Inner Kerb & Pre-Cairn Activity, Classification and description of lithic artefacts: a discussion of the basic lithic terminology, Forts, camps and motes of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, Fire modification of bone: a review of the literature, A New Look at the Late Bronze Age Metalwork from the Tay, Olcote, Breasclete Park, Callanish (Uig parish), burial cairn and quartz scatter, Excavation of an Early Bronze Age Cemetery and other sites at West Water Reservoir, West Linton, Scottish Borders, Préhistoire de la Pierre Taillée Tome 3 (Meudon), Excavation of a Bronze Age ring cairn at Cloburn Quarry, Cairngryffe Hill, Lanarkshire, The excavation and survey of prehistoric enclosures at Blackshouse Burn, Lanarkshire, Olcote, Breasclete Park, Callanish (Uig parish), kerb cairn and quartz scatter, Middle Bronze Age Dirks and Rapiers from Scotland: Some Finds Old and New, The excavation of Cairnwell ring-cairn, Portletten, Aberdeenshire, Unpublished grey literature report by Rathmell Archaeology Ltd, Dating the Scottish Bronze Age: ‘There is clearly much that the material can still tell us, “..beads which have given rise to much dogmatism, controversy and rash speculation”: faience in Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, Burnt bones and Teeth: an Experimental Study of Color, Morphology, Crystal Structure and Shrinkage, Time, temperature and oxygen availability: an experimental study of the effects of environmental conditions on the colour and organic content of cremated bone, with contributions by Alan Duffy, Rob Engl, Fraser Hunter, Rachel Ives, Ann Macsween, Jackaline Robertson and Suerc Illustrated by Graeme Carruthers, Attila Csaba and Leonora O'Brien, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.465.4369&rep=rep1&type=pdf, Neolithic Pits, a Bronze Age Cremation and an Early Iron Age Ring-Ditch at Newton Farm, Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, A Neolithic Structure and Bronze Age Activity at West Flank Road, Drumchapel, Glasgow, Blades for the gods, blades for the dead: a Bronze Age rapier from Swaites Hill, South Lanarkshire, Excavation of a Bronze Age Ring-Groove House at Inverkip, Inverclyde, A Bronze Age Cairn at Coneypark, Stirling, Castlebank Street and the origins of the Bishop's house/Partick Castle, Excavating a Mid-Iron Age crouched inhumation on the shores of Loch Gruinart, Islay, Argyll and Bute, The excavation of Bankhead homestead, Darvel, Ayrshire, Remnants of a cremation burial from cist [016], Charcoal-rich deposit over possible hearth, Australian Research Council ERA 2012 Journal List, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH PLUS), International Medieval Bibliography (IMB), Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, Web of Science/Emerging Sources Citation Index. The other two cremations, the primary burial from the cist and that from context [017] fell far short of a full cremation. The third phase was the construction of the outer kerb [012] and the deposition of compacted cairn fabric (029) between the inner and outer kerbs. The species identified were alder (Alnus glutinosa L), birch (Betula sp), ash (Fraxinus sp) and oak (Quercus sp). A date for this development sometime in the later 17th early 16th century BC appears most likely, but there is no clear dividing line between daggers, dirks and rapiers. The Group 1 rapiers are predominantly found in Ireland, but additional concentrations have been noted in the River Thames and the northern Fenland area around Norfolk. The fourth phase of the cairn's construction involved the deposition of the upper and lower cairn material ((011), (018) and (029)) over the area encompassed by the outer kerb, though it is assumed that the outer face of the outer kerb would have remained visible before the cairn material later slumped. The example at the bottom, a rapier or 'thrusting sword' (1884.119.315), is the older of the two, dating from the Middle Bronze Age (1400-1250 BC). The handle were simple, literally a handle. The underside of the bottom edge of the collar is defined by a row of stab decoration. None of the remaining seven contexts exceeded 1g in charcoal. The assemblage amounted to 196 lithics that were recovered either by hand during excavation (31 lithics, 16%) or extracted from the processed soil samples (165 lithics, 84%). Their similarity with the grooved daggers of Gerloff's Armorico-British type (Gerloff 1975), combined with their largely complementary distribution, has led to the suggestion that these objects may be contemporary with some of the later dagger types and that the Group 1 rapiers may have their origins as early as 1600–1500 BC (Cowie 1995, 349). Swaites Hill 320m OD (NGR NS 95177 41374) sits to the north of Tinto Hill within a loop of the River Clyde, with commanding views of the river to the north, east and south (Fig 1). Such artefacts are more often found in wet places such as peat bogs where they have been placed as votive deposits, so the discovery of an isolated specimen in close association with a burial monument of broadly comparable date is of immense significance. Every sword is a unique piece. Colours of burnt bone can range from shades of red, brown, black, blue, grey, beige, or white. The identification of Vessel 1 as a collared urn places its date in the earlier part of the Bronze Age, from around 2000BC, when collared urns came into use as part of the move from inhumation to cremation. Both pieces came from the topsoil. However, the full picture must sadly remain incomplete due to the modern disturbance which subsequently took place upon the site. This disproportionate presence may suggest deliberate inclusion of quartz gravel in these contexts. Rapier with bronze handle from The first phase is partly conjectural and based on observation of the site plans. The excavation was carried out by Rathmell Archaeology in 2015. Prior to excavation, the cairn at Swaites Hill, Cloburn Quarry, South Lanarkshire appeared simple in character, comprising a massively robbed-out and disturbed ring-cairn. Cist 1 [015] was aligned westnorthwest-eastsoutheast and was rectangular in plan, measuring 1.1m by 0.7m and 0.5m in depth. It is possible that some of the large boulders located close to the cairn were once placed in the recesses in the outer kerb, though this arrangement is unlikely to have formed a stone circle as at Cairnwell. 19 bulk samples were submitted for processing from the excavation undertaken at Swaites Hill. was used as the primary material for cutting edged tools and weapons. Bronze Age; Daggers, knives, rapiers and swords; Similar Records. This may have happened numerous times before the cists were finally filled in and covered with cairn material. (According to one experiment conducted by Dr Alison Sheridan (2010), it could take as long as 24 hours before the remains are cool enough to handle.) The underlying subsoil (numbered variously (002) surrounding the cairn, and (026) within the cairn), was a mid-orange, silty clay with frequent small to medium sized stones and occasional grey sandstone/red granite bedrock/fragments. Sold. Within Zone 4 a dark orange-brown clay-silt deposit, (033), was recorded under and between some of the stones. The context of their use is of course of great interest to a student of the past, but one that is often only an ephemeral vision today. A radiocarbon date obtained from the cremated bone in (017) gave a date of 3654 ± 30 (cal BC 2136–1943 at 2 Sigma, SUERC- 71909 (GU43374)). Our knife is from the latter group – an adhering or cortex-like material on the dorsal surface may have been a consequence of hafting, but this is highly speculative. In general, the evolution of blade weapons in the Bronze Age is from the dagger or knife in the Early Bronze Age to the earliest narrow bladed "rapier" swords optimized for thrusting from the Middle Bronze Age to the typical leaf-shape blades in the Late Bronze Age. Colour change is thought to relate to decomposition of the organic component (Shipman et al, 1984, 322.). The surrounding area has abundant prehistoric archaeology (Fig 2), with three scheduled monuments located within 2km of the site: these include the enclosures at Blackhouse Burn (1) (Canmore ID 47640) and Meadowflatt (2) (Canmore ID: 47641); and the fort at Chester Hill (3) (Canmore ID: 47463). Much of the hoard dates to the Middle Bronze Age, around 3,500 years ago. Rathmell Archaeology Ltd carried out the excavation of a disturbed kerbed cairn at Swaites Hill, Cloburn Quarry, South Lanarkshire. The authors are particularly thankful to Thomas Rees and Louise Turner who gave much support and guidance during the writing and editing of this publication. Alternatively, the rapier may never have accompanied a burial in the first place, instead representing the deposition of a single object in a ‘special’ place. The use of alternating panels of vertical and horizontal lines of decoration is referred to by Longworth as ‘incised hurdle pattern’ (1984, 217). 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