Summary

Flint knife with a large, plain striking platform from Cist A, Holly Road, Leven, Fife

Accession Number

X.2005.27.1

Other references

Original description

[One of] Finds from excavations at Holly Road, Leven, Fife. IDENTIFICATION - Description: Finds from excavations at Holly Road, Leven, Fife. X.2005.27.1 (X.EQ 1113) Flint knife from Cist A. Description: (after published catalogue entry by Saville) Large robust blade with a large, plain striking platform, 7mm deep and 14mm wide, above a pronounced bulb of percussion; almost certainly been produced by hard-hammer striking technique; cross-section of the blade essentially triangular, with a single dorsal ridge, and much steeper on the left side of the ridge than the right. Small area of brown cortex remains at the distal end, while rest of the surface is predominantly an un-discoloured, very dark grey coloured flint. The flint is of high quality and either the artefact or the raw material has undoubtedly been imported into Fife from an external source, probably in England. There is shallow, invasive scalar retouch down the sharp, right-side edge, giving it a slightly sub-denticulate outline, defining this artefact as a single-edge knife. The tool has not been cleaned in case use-wear analysis is to be undertaken, but even so, under the microscope, there are obvious signs of abrasion on the retouched edge consistent with use. The opposite edge also shows indications of some use. Dimensions: length: 81mm long, width 28mm; maximum thickness 14mm, Weight 31g. Context: Cist A: found ventral (flat) side uppermost, behind where the back of the corpse would have been. Date: The surviving skeletal remains produced a date of 1980–1680 cal BC (GrA-22106) (see published report for details). FIELD COLLECTION - Place: Holly Road, Leven, Scoonie (Kirkcaldy), Fife. Grid Reference: NO 3783 0213. Site Type: Cist cemetery. Period: Bronze Age. Method: Excavation. NMRS no: NO30SE 1. Circumstances of Discovery / Notes: Excavations were undertaken in advance of the development of an area to the N of Leven where a cist burial was discovered in 1944. The recent investigations revealed an enclosed cist cemetery, radiocarbon-dated to the first two centuries of the second millennium BC. The cemetery appears to have had a short period of use when it received inhumation burials inside the ditched enclosure. A number of cists of poorer construction were uncovered outside the enclosure and a Neolithic cremation deposit was retrieved from within the ditch (Author’s abstract). In addition to the fusiform bead from the 1944 investigations (already registered as NMS: EQ 944), the cemetery produced the following: in Cist A were a flint knife, a fossil crinoid that had been used as a bead, and a Vase Food Vessel; in Cists B, C and K, one Vase Food Vessel each (with parts of two others being found in disturbed positions); and in Cist H, an unusually-shaped pebble that had probably been used as an amulet. NOTES and DOCUMENTATION - Bibliographic Reference: Christie, R L 'Short cist at Durie, Scoonie, Fife', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 83 (1948-9), 230-1. Lewis, J and Terry, J ‘The excavation of an early Bronze Age cemetery at Holly Road, Leven, Fife’ Tayside & Fife Archaeological Journal 10 (2004). Registered / Completed By: Trevor Cowie. Date: 28.8.2006.

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

None

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

2002

Method (e.g. excavation)

Excavated

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Leven, Fife, Scotland, Northern Europe

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

2005

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Unknown

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Donor

Image

None