Summary

Fragments of a skull, one showing a lesion almost certainly caused by a sebaceous cyst, and other skeletal remains of a young adult female, from Mount Stuart, Bute

Accession Number

X.EQ 102

Other references

Original description

COLLECTIONS FROM SEPULCHRAL DEPOSITS: Small fragment of bronze blade & portion of trepanned human skull, from Mountstuart, Isle of Bute. A. Sheridan note, 21/8/96: fragments of skull (one showing a lesion almost certainly caused by a sebaceous cyst - definitely not a trepanation) and other skeletal remains of a young adult female. A. Sheridan note, 21/8/96: Professor Matthew Kaufman of the Edinburgh University Anatomy Department, an authority on cranial lesions, examined the relevant skull fragment on 21.8.96; he confirmed that the hole was not made by trepanning, as had been reported in several publications, but had been a natural by-product of a non-cancerous growth on the head (a sebaceous cyst); this would not have been the cause of death, and probably did not hurt either; it would have been a disfigurement, though; this means that the only pre-1100 AD definite example of trepanning in Scotland is from the Westness cemetery - skull currently still in Norway. A. Sheridan note, 3/6/98: We now have the Westness skull and have confirmed that it is not trepanned; this means that the only pre-AD 1100 definite example of trepanning in Scotland is from the Early Historic cemetery at Hallow Hill, Fife (Proudfoot, PSAS 126 (1996), 403); the alleged example from a Viking grave at Westness is not a trepanning.

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Not recorded

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, Buteshire, Scotland, Northern Europe

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1888

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Marquess of Bute

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Donor

Image