Excavation of a Neolithic settlement and ritual complex at Beckton Farm, Lockerbie, Dumfries & Galloway

Abstract

Reports a site consisting of the remains of several structures, possibly small houses, and various pits and post-holes. Finds included a small assemblage of Grooved Ware which had been deposited in pits. This material, and the presence of cremated human bone in one of the Grooved Ware pits probably represents ritual activity on the site. A series of six radiocarbon dates was obtained, suggesting a sequence of activity stretching from the mid-fourth to the mid-third millennium BC. There are specialist reports on: `Ceramics' by Andrew Jones (89--96); `Flaked stone objects' (96--100) and `Coarse stone tools' (100--1), both by Tony Pollard; cup marked stones; `Burnt bone' by Jacqueline I McKinley (103); `Micromorphological analysis' by Stephen Carter (103--5); `Phosphate and magnetic susceptibility surveys' by Iain Banks (105--7); and finally, `Plant remains' by Sheila Boardman (107--9).