Summary

Intact bipartite vase food vessel with a stop-ridge groove, from cist A Holly Road, Leven, Fife

Accession Number

X.2005.27.6

Other references

Original description

[One of] Finds from excavations at Holly Road, Leven, Fife. ORF: IDENTIFICATION - Description: Finds from excavations at Holly Road, Leven, Fife. Description (after published catalogue entry by Sheridan): Intact bipartite Vase Food Vessel with a stop-ridge groove similar to, but smaller than X.2005.27.4 (X.EQ 1116). There is minor, ancient damage to the rim and neck at one point and to the wall just above the base at another. There is also more recent, minor surface spalling from the interior. The rim is everted and has an angled internal bevel and a narrow external bevel; the neck is straight and vertical, kinking in below the rim and out towards the stop-ridge. The latter, 3.5mm wide, is sharply defined by gouging and has four small unperforated strap-lugs. The belly shape has a clearly-defined pedestal; the base is flat inside and outside. The whole of the exterior (except the stop-ridge groove) and the internal rim bevel are decorated with twisted cord impressions and these have been neatly applied in an overall herringbone pattern. The cord has been twisted slightly more tightly than in X.2005.27.4 (X.EQ 1116) although the material used for the cord seems to be very similar. Individual fine strands can be seen in the impressions and the overall width of the impressions is no greater than 2.5mm. The upper and lower margins of the stop-ridge have a line of short, vertical impressions of tightly-twisted cord and the internal rim bevel has a herringbone design interrupted by two concentric plain lines of twisted cord. The exterior is light to medium brown in colour while the interior is pale grey at the base and greybrown elsewhere. The core colour, visible where the interior surface has spalled off, is a medium grey. The surfaces has been carefully smoothed and coated with a thick slip prior to decoration. This surface treatment has obscured almost all of the stone inclusions. There are no indications of any former contents. Accidental impressions of organic material are visible in at least three places: a straw impression on the lower exterior surface; a probable grass impression near the base of the interior; and what may be a seed-head (not cereal) impression on the base. Dimensions: height: 115mm; rim diameter: 142mm; base diameter: 66mm; wall thickness; 10-14mm. Context: Cist A: found upright on the floor of the cist beside the W wall, in front of where the deceased’s chest 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