Three Bronze Age burials from Angus

Abstract

Since October 1980 the author has dealt with three Early/Middle Bronze Age burials whilst employed on Manpower Services Projects sponsored by Angus District Council. The discovery of a short cist at Mains of Melgund, near Aberlemno, by farmworkers who searched the grave in April 1980 produced a jet necklace, a flint scraper and the remains of an inhumation. The author re-excavated the cist in October 1980. In February 1982 the author visited the site of a cairn on Baldardo Farm, Forfar, and found that recent ploughing had dislodged the capstone of a short cist. Subsequent excavation produced the cremated remains of a young adult and a flint knife. Probable Beaker sherds and a quantity of burnt bone lay on the N side of the grave and perhaps hint at a re-use of the cist. In June 1982 a small round cairn was excavated by the author on Easter Marcus Farm near Finavon. The site had been disturbed by the ploughing of previous pasture and excavation showed that the cairn covered a spread of dark soil, sherds of cinerary urn, burnt bone and charcoal.