Excavations at Upper Largie Quarry, Argyll & Bute, Scotland: New Light on the Prehistoric Ritual Landscape of the Kilmartin Glen

Abstract

Excavations were carried out intermittently between 1982 and 2005, by various excavators, in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll & Bute. They revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric activity, dating from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, on a fluvioglacial terrace overlooking the rest of the Glen, although some evidence was doubtless destroyed without record during a period of unmonitored quarrying. Several undated features were also discovered. Mesolithic activity is represented by four pits, probably representing a temporary camp; this is the first evidence for Mesolithic activity in the Glen. Activity of definite and presumed Neolithic date includes the construction, and partial burning, of a post-defined cursus. Copper Age activity is marked by an early Beaker grave which matches counterparts in the Netherlands in both design and contents, and raises the question of the origin of its occupant. The terrace was used again as a place of burial during the Early Bronze Age, between the 22nd and the 18th century, and the graves include one, adjacent to the early Beaker grave, containing a unique footed Food Vessel combining Irish and Yorkshire Food Vessel features. At some point/s during the first half of the 2nd millennium bc – the oakbased dates may suffer from ‘old wood’ effect – three monuments were constructed on the terrace: a pit, surrounded by pits or posts, similar in design to the early Beaker grave; a timber circle; and a post row. The latest datable activity consists of a grave, containing cremated bone in a Bucket Urn, the bone being dated to 1410–1210 cal bc; this may well be contemporary with an assemblage of pottery from a colluvium spread. The relationship between this activity and contemporary activities elsewhere in the Glen is discussed.

Firewood, food and human niche construction: the potential role of Mesolithic hunter–gatherers in actively structuring Scotland's woodlands

“…It has Table 1 and woodland zones are taken from Tipping (1994Tipping ( , 2004. Cook and Engl (2002); Gooder (2002Gooder ( , 2004; Gooder and Engl (2002) Searight (1990) Castle Street 8 1 Late 8theEarly 6th millennium cal BC M Occupation layers containing artefacts and ecofacts and incorporating a possible hearth Soil wet sieved to 5 mm, no further information available Dickson (1985); Wordsworth et al (1985) Chapelfield Pit 5 9 2 Late 7theMid 6th millennium cal BC M 3 pits (only pit 5 securely dated and included in this analysis)…”

Revealing the Earliest Animal Engravings in Scotland: The Dunchraigaig Deer, Kilmartin

“…The Beaker phenomenon is attested in Kilmartin between the twenty-fifth and twenty-second centuries bce . Two of the earliest Beaker burials known in Britain include a young woman from the continent buried on the Isle of Coll, off the coast of Kilmartin, around 2470–2210 bce , and another at Upper Largie quarry in Kilmartin (Cook et al 2010; Henshall 1972; Olalde et al 2018; Parker Pearson et al 2019, 427; Sheridan 2012). In this context, can we speculate that the inspiration for Dunchraigaig's deer carvings arrived with other Beaker traits?…”

Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Scotland: ScARF Panel Report

“…The dense concentration of monuments in Kilmartin Glen, for example, includes a linear cairn cemetery, henge, stone circles, stone rows and standing stones, creating an extensive and impressive sacred landscape (e.g. Cook et al 2010). At Broomend of Crichie, there were originally two stone circles, one of which incorporated a cairn while the other was enclosed by a henge; these were linked by a double stone row that ended at an early Bronze Age cist cemetery (Bradley 2011).…”