An Early Bronze Age short-cist burial at Abbey Mains Farm

Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 132 (2002), 193–204

An Early Bronze Age short-cist burial at Abbey MainsFarm, Haddington, East Lothian

John A Lawson*, David Henderson* & Alison Sheridan‡

ABSTRACT

A short cist was discovered during ploughing in January 1999. It was aligned WSW/ENE, andcontained the crouched skeleton of an adult female aged 22–25, laid on her right side with her headto the WSW. A ‘step 4’ (Clarke’s ‘N2 or N3’) Beaker, not dissimilar to the one found at RuchlawMains a few kilometres away, had been placed at the small of her back, and the remains of a joint ofpork were found behind her shoulders. A radiocarbon date of 2570–2300 cal was obtained fromone of the human bones. There were no traces of a covering mound.

INTRODUCTION record of any other cist being found in theimmediate vicinity.

John A Lawson

The cist was discovered when the capstone was THE CISTlifted during ploughing, in a field belonging to A sub-circular pit (context 11 on illus 2), 2.10m inAbbey Mains Farm to the south of the A1, diameter and 0.65m deep, was dug with near-near Haddington (illus 1). On investigation by vertical sides and a gradual break of slope at itsthe farmer, Mr D Playfair, a human femur was base forming a nearly flat bottom, slightly deeper to

the east. (Numbers in brackets refer to contextobserved and the find was reported to Historicnumbers on illus 2.) The cist (9) was constructedScotland. The City of Edinburgh Councilfrom slabs of a medium-grained, micaceous, Car-Archaeology Service was subsequently askedboniferous sandstone, forming a rectangular boxto conduct a rescue excavation. This was donemeasuring internally 1.0m long by 0.68m wide and

between 19 and 22 January 1999. 0.30m deep. The nearest source for the stone used isThe cist was located approximately 2.5km to be found 600m to the SSW of the cist (illus 1),

east of Haddington, East Lothian (illus 1: where it outcrops on the southern bank of the RiverNGR NT 536 751), within a field situated Tyne near Abbey Bridge (R Steedman, pers comm).

A single large rectangular flagstone formed thebetween the River Tyne and the southern sidebase of the stone cist, aligned WSW/ENE. At theof the A1. The cist was positioned on thewestern end of the base was an upright slab, itswestern end of a glacial knoll ( just to the northeastern and top surfaces being flat and the edgesof its highest point) which formed a prominentpossibly deliberately squared where they stood

skyline feature when viewed from the River above the level of the base slab. Below this level andTyne to the south. The underlying subsoil was on the western (outer) face, the stone was unshaped.a sandy gravel and clay glacial till. The cist The northern and southern side-slabs were placed

leaning against the base-slab. Similarly the easternappears to be an isolated example, with no

* City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service (CECAS), 10 Broughton Market, Edinburgh EH3 6NU‡ Archaeology Department, National Museums of Scotland, Chambers St, Edinburgh EH1 1JF

194 | SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 2002

Haddington

North Berwick

Dunbar

A1

A1

Traprain Law

R. Tyne

Abbeymill Farm

Haddington

Abbey Mains

Sandstone outcropRiver Tyne

50

100

150

100

50

50

100

150

100

50

SiteA1

A1

0 1 km

Haddington

I 1 Location of Abbey Mains Farm cist site. (Based on the Ordnance Survey map © Crowncopyright)

LAWSON ET AL: ABBEY MAINS CIST | 195

I 2 Plan and section of the cist

slab was placed to lean against the sides and base. though plastic clay is readily available in thevicinity.On the inner side of the eastern end slab, a further

small slab sat on the base-slab and helped to hold The pit fill surrounding the cist showed evidencethat the spoil from the pit’s excavation had beenthe north and south slabs apart. The gap between

these two eastern slabs was in-filled with a mix of kept apart in two separate piles. To the north andeast the backfill showed clear tip-lines of gravel,soil and small packing stones. There was no evid-

ence of clay luting of the joints of the cist, even gravelly clay, and sand in contrast to the south and


west, where the fill was a homogeneous deposit of scapula, humerus, the spinal column, and some ofthe left ribs. The back of the cranium from behindgravelly clay reflecting the surrounding subsoil.

The occupant of the cist, a young woman, was the right ear to the outer corner of the left eye wasalso in good condition. However most of the rest ofinterred in a tightly crouched position on her right

side with her head to the WSW. A joint of pork, the skeleton had suffered from severe erosion. Allthe bones are lightly etched by fine plant-roots.represented by a pig scapula, was found behind her

shoulders, and a Beaker was found resting on its The in situ remains indicated that the right thighwas tightly flexed against the chest. The left femurside at the small of her back, its mouth facing

towards the upper body. It is debatable whether was disturbed on discovery of the cist but an in situfragment of fibula suggests that the left thigh wasthis Beaker had originally been deposited upright

(and had then toppled over, perhaps as the body arranged at right-angles to the trunk, with the kneetightly flexed. The left humerus was parallel to thedecayed), or had been placed on its side; all that

can be said is that the ‘tide line’ left by its original trunk. With the exception of a fragment of the headof the right radius and the fibula fragment, no bonescontents indicates that it must have been on its side

while some of this substance had still been within. distal to the elbows or knees had survived. Themandible was represented by a collection of threeThe authors prefer, but cannot prove, the ‘upright

then toppled over’ interpretation. eroded tooth enamels from the left side. Becausethe stone floor of the cist sloped down from theA single slab of sandstone, roughly square in

shape (0.95m by 0.98m and 0.19m thick), formed head end, it appears that acidic rain-water percolat-ing into the cist had flowed towards the feet,the capstone of the cist, laid at an angle of about

45° to the long axis of the cist. A layer of angular carrying bone fragments as they eroded, with someof the larger fragments becoming trapped under thefragments of sandstone (8) occurred along the

southern side of the cist, with a double layer left femur.occurring in the south-eastern corner. No evidencefor the remains of a cairn or enclosing ditch was

The individualfound within 10m of the cist.The southern side-slab of the cist had begun to The skeleton was of a female, based on pelvic

degrade in antiquity. Weathering of the bedding morphology (Bass 1994, 200–6) and aged 22 to 25planes exposed along its top edge resulted in small years old, based on dental wear (Brothwell 1981,angular flakes of stone up to 30mm thick falling 72). The individual was between 1.54m and 1.62minto the cist interior. As the stone degraded, clay tall, based on the length of the humerus (Trotterfrom the pit backfill (7) filtered into the cist. Recent 1970). Although the facial bones and the front partdisturbance during agricultural activity had already of the skull were missing, the skull presented a verycracked and perhaps slightly shifted the capstone spherical (brachycranial ) appearance. The muscleprior to discovery, allowing topsoil (4) to penetrate attachments on the bones were not stronglythe cist, silting it to a depth of between 0.05m and marked. The femurs were both markedly platym-0.15m, with the bottom-most silting (6) mixed with eric, a shape much more common in pre-industrialthe eroding clay (7). In the process of discovery, the than in modern populations, where the lateral sideploughshare had lifted the south-eastern half of the of the femur shaft develops an extra flange of bone,capstone and deposited a further, considerable, possibly in response to the stress of a more robustquantity of topsoil (1) into the cist. lifestyle. The skull exhibited scaphocephaly, where

the sagittal suture is obliterated prematurely. ThisTHE HUMAN AND ANIMAL REMAINS condition can affect the skull shape if it occurs

before growth has stopped (Aufderheide & Rodrıg-David Hendersonuez-Martın 1998, 52) but in this case appears to

have had little effect except for producing a slightasymmetry in the basal part of the skull. The sagittalPosition and preservationsuture does not normally close fully until after thefifth or sixth decade of life. Many large WormianThe individual was lying on her right-hand side,

with the head to the WSW, facing ESE. Preserva- ossicles were present in the lambdoid suture, especi-ally on the right side. This condition, particularlytion was mixed, with good survival of the left femur,


the asymmetry, has been linked to nutritional stressin childhood, although with a strong genetic predis-position (Mays 1998, 103–16). The humerus dis-played a septal aperture. The form of the pubictubercle and the fossa below it may indicate that thewoman had had at least one child. The three leftupper molars were recovered in situ, and the lowerleft third molar crown was recovered intact, besidethe broken remains of at least two other teeth. Boththird molars were very slightly worn.

Radiocarbon date

In order to date the burial a radiocarbon date wasobtained from the sternum bone. The result, calib-rated using OxCal version 3.5, is presented inTable 1; the d13 C value indicates that the individualhad had a diet in which protein came exclusivelyfrom terrestrial, rather than marine, resources(Richards & van Klinken 1997).

One item of animal bone was recovered from theI 3 The Beaker from the cist

site, the left scapula of an adult pig (Sus scrofa).Essentially intact, the bone had been eroded around

THE BEAKERthe margins by acidic ground-water, and was etchedby plant-root action over most of the surviving Alison Sheridansurface. No convincing butchery marks were dis-cernible under these conditions, but a transverse The Beaker (illus 3) is virtually intact, with a sherd

missing from the rim (as the result of recentlinear nick on the medio-inferior margin of thescapular neck is a possible candidate. No measure- damage), and fairly extensive surface spalling on

the side on which the pot had been resting. (Thisments could be taken on the bone, but it is visuallyvery similar in size to the medieval pig population spalling had probably occurred in antiquity; see

above on whether or not the pot might originallyof Edinburgh and Leith, and so was most probablydomestic rather than wild. It is very possible that have been deposited upright.) It is 177mm high,

with diameters at the rim, belly, and base of 117,the scapula was originally deposited as part of alarger joint of meat, for example a whole foreleg, 122, and 84mm respectively and a wall thickness of

c 8.5mm. The rim is squared off and slopes towardsbut the post-deposition environment has eroded allother bones; this patchy preservation has certainly the interior; the neck is short and splays slightly; the

belly is high and fairly narrow, meeting the neck atoccurred in the adjacent human skeleton.

T 1

The radiocarbon date for human bone from the cist

Lab no Years BP d13C(‰) Cal (1s) Cal (2s)

OxA-10254 3945±40 -21.0 2560–2540 (4.5%) 2570–2510 (14.3%)2500–2400 (49.6%) 2500–2300 (81.1%)2380–2340 (14.1%)


a sharp angle; and the base is flat inside and out, Late Northern (N2 & N3) Beakers. The sharp neck-belly junction and the use of neck grooves can bewith a slight pedestal. The exterior, from the rim toseen, for example, on Beakers from Huggate &just above the base, is decorated with bands ofWarterwold, Humberside and Bellingham,impressions made by two square-toothed combs,Northumberland (Clarke 1970, figs 508, 594); lessone around 40mm long, and the other c 7mm. Thesedistant examples of neck grooves include the N2are interspersed with plain areas, and on the neckBeaker from Skateraw, East Lothian (Close-Brooksand the top of the belly there are also five horizontal1979). According to Lanting & van der Waals’sgrooves. From top to bottom, the decorativeclassification (1972), the Abbey Mains Beakerscheme is as follows: neck and top of belly: band ofwould fall within their ‘step 4’. Its closest parallel isshort, criss-cross strokes; plain band; narrow run-also geographically close – the Beaker from Ruch-ning chevron of short strokes, criss-cross in places;law Mains, around 8km to the ESE.groove, plain band, groove; wide running chevron,

short strokes; groove; plain band; groove-ridge-DISCUSSIONgroove with short herringbone strokes; band of

short herringbone (in places, criss-cross). Rest of Alison Sheridan & John A Lawsonbelly: panel of roughly vertical long-comb strokes,with short-stroke running chevrons at top and At present the cist found at Abbey Mainsbottom, framed by one horizontal long-comb line Farm seems to be an isolated example and notat the top and three at the bottom; below this, fringe part of a cemetery. Nevertheless the cist’sof short running chevron, then broad plain band, location would appear to have been deliber-then five untidy horizontal lines of long comb ately chosen and is characteristic of Earlyimpressions, then plain band. Bronze Age burial sites, on a prominent gravel

The exterior is a mottled buff/reddish-brown/ knoll. Furthermore it may not be coincidentalorange brown; the interior a slightly darker, more

that the body faces Traprain Law, an import-greyish colour, and core is blackish-grey. This

ant centre for prehistoric occupation in Eastindicates that, like many other Beakers, this pot hadLothian.been fired relatively rapidly, and probably in an

The site is one of around 30 Beaker-inverted position. There are traces of a thin, black-associated burials from the rich agriculturalish encrustation on parts of the interior – the upperlands of East Lothian and (former) Berwick-belly and neck – on the side of the pot where theshire, and its Beaker joins some 50 or so othersexterior surface had spalled away. This may wellfrom this part of Scotland, including threerepresent the remains of the pot’s former liquid

contents, which had gathered on one side of the pot associated with radiocarbon dates (of varying(if, say, the pot had fallen on its side), and then reliability: see below). As Ashmore et al (1982)evaporated. There is another kind of encrustation, observed in their report on the similar Beakerpresent on parts of the exterior: this is a pale buff, from a cist at nearby Ruchlaw Mains, suchslightly granular accretion, probably from mineral- numbers are not sufficiently large to permit therich groundwater, which had percolated into the construction of a regional Beaker typochron-cist. ology. This is particularly unfortunate, as the

Visible in the fracture surfaces and where the radiocarbon date of 2570–2300 cal surface has spalled away are the numerous stone obtained from the Abbey Mains skeletongrits that had been added to the clay as temper.

appears to be relatively early for a step 4These had been obscured when the surface of theBeaker (see Table 2), and indeed places itpot was carefully smoothed and coated with a slipamong the earliest dated Beakers in Britainprior to decoration. They consist of crushed, crys-and Ireland (cf Kinnes et al 1991, for results oftalline stone, up to c 4x3.5 mm, and are present in athe British Museum Beaker dating pro-density of c 15% (as calculated using chartsgramme, and also Garwood & Barclay 1998,developed by Matthew et al 1991).281–6 for a more recent discussion). Some 12The Beaker shares formal and decorative traits

in common with some of Clarke’s Developed and dates1 are currently available for step 4 Beakers


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in Britain. Although several of these need to two Derbyshire barrows, entire pig skeletonswere found: at Monsal Low, the pig was in thebe discounted (as being obviously anomalous

and/or having unacceptably large standard body of the mound, while at Top Low it hadbeen placed under the barrow, together withdeviations, cf Kinnes et al 1991), the generally

accepted determinations calibrate, at 2s, to an antler tine, in a small cist of its own, besideseveral human interments (Bateman 1861,between 2460–2020 cal , for an example

from Bractullo, Perth & Kinross, and 133–8). All of these practices could arguablyrelate to funeral feasting, in which animals1915–1675 cal for that from Boysack Mills,

Angus. There is clearly a need for more, and were sacrificed and parts of the feast wereconsigned to the ‘other world’, as actual ormore reliable, dates to be obtained; until then,

we cannot be certain whether the Abbey Mains token deposits of food for the deceased. In thiscontext, the incorporation of the remains ofdate is anomalously early, as appears to be the

case at present. the feast into the covering mound would formpart of the closure of the funerary ceremonies,The presence of the pig scapula, suggestive

of a deposit of (presumably cooked) pork as underlining their sacredness.As indicated above, pigs were not the onlyfood for the afterlife, is not unparalleled in

Bronze Age burials. In their discussion of the animals to be used in this way. For example, asinged cattle bone was found with a Foodpig bones found at Gairneybank, Perth &

Kinross, Cowie & Ritchie (1991) cited Early Vessel-associated crouched inhumation at Kin-tyre Nurseries, Campbeltown (Sheridan 1992),Bronze Age examples from Dalineun, Argyll

& Bute, Aberdour Road (cist 1), Dunfermline, while burnt sheep bones have been noted froma multiple cremation pit grave at HorsbrughFife and Muirhall, Perth & Kinross. They also

mentioned a later example from a short cist at Castle Farm, Scottish Borders (Denston 1974,57), and at Wetwang Slack, Humberside a deerGrainfoot, East Lothian (dating to 1305–940

cal BC), and pointed out that the practice had scapula accompanied a burial (Dent 1979).However, these instances of animal depositsalso been observed in an Iron Age context at

Catch-a-Penny, Burnmouth, Scottish Borders are far rarer than the practice of depositingBeakers or Food Vessels in graves, with their(Craw 1924; cf Smith 2000).

Further Bronze Age examples from Scot- presumably (and sometimes demonstrably)liquid contents.land and elsewhere in Britain could be added

to the list; these are enumerated in Table 3. It In discussing the use of pig remains inBronze Age burials, a distinction should argu-appears that the deposition of pork in the grave

– usually as joints of meat, and most commonly ably be drawn between the use of domestic pigas food offerings, and the incorporation of wildinvolving the fore-limbs – was just one of a

range of practices involving pigs in Bronze Age boar remains. The latter usually occur as boartusks (and sometimes other teeth), not as otherfunerals. Sometimes pig (and other animal )

remains were incorporated into the barrow parts of the body, and these are more likely torepresent prestigious hunting trophies. The notcovering a grave (as at Berwick St John,

Wiltshire, for example: Grinsell 1957, 156). In infrequent association of antlers (or partsthereof ) with boar teeth – as at Bincombe,some cases, parts of a pig’s head have been

found inside a grave (as at Brackmont Mill and Dorset (Grinsell 1959, 25) – may strengthenthe case for this ‘trophy’ interpretation.Barrow Hills, Radley: Mears 1937; Barclay

1998); these are analogous to the cattle heads,or heads and hooves, that have occasionally

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSbeen found in Bronze Age graves (eg at HempKnoll Wiltshire: Robertson-Mackay 1980), The project was funded jointly by the City of

Edinburgh Council and Historic Scotland andand which seem to signify token deposits. At


Brothwell, D 1981 Digging up Bones, 3rd edn.the authors would like to thank in particularLondon.Patrick Ashmore and Olwyn Owen of Historic

Christie, P M 1988 ‘A barrow cemetery on David-Scotland for their support. They would alsostow Moor, Cornwall. Wartime excavations bylike to thank Dick Beck and David Playfair ofC K Croft Andrew’, Cornish Archaeol, 27,Abbeymains Farm for reporting the cist so27–169.promptly and for allowing time and access to

Clarke, C M & Hamilton, J 1999 ‘Excavation of athe site, and also Bert Steedman of Abbeymillcist burial on Doons Law, Leetside Farm,Farm for imparting his local knowledge. TheWhitsome, Berwickshire’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,assistance of DC MacFarlane of Musselburgh129, 189–201.

CID is also acknowledged. Alison SheridanClose-Brooks, J 1979 ‘A Beaker cist at Skateraw,

wishes to thank David Clarke, John Dent, East Lothian’, Trans E Lothian Antiq Soc, 16,Trevor Cowie, and Gordon Cook for their 1–5.assistance and advice. Illustrations 1 and 2 Close-Brooks, J, Norgate, M & Ritchie, J N G 1972were drawn by Laura Speed, and illus 3 by ‘A Bronze Age cemetery at Aberdour Road,Caitlin Evans; the finds were allocated to East Dunfermline, Fife’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 104Lothian Museums Service (Crown Office (1971–2), 121–36.

Cowie, T G & Ritchie, J N G 1991 ‘Bronze AgeTreasure Trove case TT 150/98), and theburials at Gairneybank, Kinross-shire’, Procdocumentary archive will be deposited in theSoc Antiq Scot, 121, 95–109.National Monuments Record for Scotland

Craw, J H 1924 ‘On two bronze spoons from an(NMRS no NT57NW 115).early Iron Age grave near Burnmouth,Berwickshire’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 58(1923–4), 143–60.NOTE

Craw, J H 1933 ‘On two Bronze Age cists at1 More dates may have been determined, but no Sprouston, Roxburghshire’, Proc Soc Antiq

comprehensive digest of British Beaker dates has Scot, 67 (1932–3), 308–11.been produced since Kinnes et al’s 1991 list. Dalland, M 1991 ‘A short cist at Grainfoot, Long-

niddry, East Lothian’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot,121, 111–5.

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This paper is published with the aid of a grant from Historic Scotland

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An Early Bronze Age short-cist burial at Abbey Mains Farm