Summary

Bipartite vase food vessel, restored and complete but for fragment of base, from the short cist cemetery at West Water Reservoir, West Linton, Peeblesshire, Early Bronze Age, 2200 - 1650 BC

Accession Number

X.1995.93.14

Other references

Original description

[MOS List, II.5.1, Death: object list by case, JAS 3.2.98. Case no.: V03 - Early Bronze Age: individual burial]. [One of] Food Vessels: West Water Reservoir: - cist 7. PK note: Provisional 1997 register number allocated to MOS object. SD note, July 1999: Edited from SCRAN full data set. Finds from excavations at West Water Reservoir, West Linton, Peeblesshire. Type of site: Short cist cemetery. Date: Early Bronze Age. Finds from the Early Bronze Age cemetery (area A). [EQ 1040] Food Vessel, cist 7 inhumation (= sf 35). Bipartite vase Food Vessel, restored and complete but for fragment of base. Height 160 mm; diameter at rim and base 155-165 mm and 93 mm respectively (upper part of body slightly oval, rather than circular); wall thickness c. 12 mm. Rim upright and pointed, with steep internal and external bevels; neck-belly junction, at just over mid-height, fairly clearly identified and accentuated by decoration. Base slightly pedestalled. Internal bevel and whole of exterior covered by impressed decoration of varying depths, mostly of loosely-whipped cord 'maggots'; these aranged as diagonal lines on the internal bevel, and as discontinuous horizontal rows on the exterior. The external bevel and the neck-belly junction are accentuated by paired rows of jabbed decoration, made with a blunt, oval-ended tool. The interior and exterior surfaces are mottled red-brown, and light to dark brown, and the core is blackish-red, indicating rapid firing. Inclusions are abundant (15-20%) but fairly well concealed from the exterior surface. They comprise angular and sub-angular grits of more than one mineral, up to 6 x 5 mm. There is also one impression of burnt-out straw on the interior - presumably an accidental inclusion. The surfaces have been carefully smoothed, and the exterior has a slip-like appearance (although whether this was created by slipping or wet-smoothing is unclear), and has been slightly polished. Placed between the head and the southern side of the cist at the west end, originally standing upright but subsequently fell over and was crushed.

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

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

Not recorded

Method (e.g. excavation)

Excavated

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

West Water Reservoir, West Linton, Peeblesshire, Scotland, Northern Europe

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1995

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Agent

Image