A Neolithic ring-mound at Midtown of Pitglassie, Auchterless, Aberdeenshire

Abstract

In Autumn 1978, excavation took place on a small round mound at Midtown of Pitglassie where digging in the 1950s had produced Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery and lithics. The excavation was organized by the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of the Department of the Environment, now Historic Scotland, with whose assistance this report is published. The excavation revealed an original annular mound, composed of circular banks of stone, earth and turf. The central area was filled with stone rubble, mostly disturbed and redeposited in the 1950s, but with one remnant of a possible central cairn. Pre-mound activity included turf-stripping and cremation, followed by the formal deposition in a number of pits of cremated bone (from, probably, one individual), accompanied by pottery and lithics, including a Neolithic leaf-shaped arrowhead. In addition to these specific deposits, pottery of Grimston Lyles Hill tradition, numerous quartz and further flint pieces were found within the mound and fragments of Beaker were recovered from the disturbed central area. Remnants of a possible circle of stone settings were found around the perimeter of the monument. Radiocarbon dates for charcoal from a cremation pit and the pre-mound surface provided dates of between 3964 and 3342 cal BC.