Summary

Bipartite vase food vessel comprised of 23 sherds, from Holly Road, Leven, Fife

Accession Number

X.2005.27.5

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. X.2005.27.5 (X.EQ 1117). Food Vessel. Description (after published catalogue entry by Sheridan): This comprises 23 sherds (of which five are now conjoined) of a ridged, bipartite Vase Food Vessel. Although only about a quarter of the pot is present, its overall shape and decoration can be reconstructed. The fracture surfaces are slightly abraded. The rim is squared off and very slightly inverted; the neck is vertical and corrugated by means of four ribs (one formed by the outer edge of the rim, one on the neck-belly junction and two in between). The shape of the belly is the same as X.2005.27.4 (X.EQ 1116); the base is flat outside and slightly domed inside. The whole of the outer surface, including the top of the rim and the base, is decorated with impressions of fine, fairly tightly-twisted cord. These range in width from 1 to 2.5mm and in depth from very shallow at the base to up to around 0.75mm on the body. They are arranged in a herringbone pattern on the top of the rim and down the body. The base has a loose, star-shaped design featuring at least five nested lines. The exterior and interior surfaces are pale to medium brown in colour and the core blackish-brown. Surface preparation had been the same as X.2005.27.4 (X.EQ 1116) although here fewer stone grits are visible and the slip is not cracked as extensively. These inclusions appear to be angular fragments of a dark grey stone up to 8 x 5mm in size. Their colour makes them hard to distinguish from the dark core fabric and makes estimation of their abundance difficult although it could be around 7–10%. Although the fabric is fairly hard, it is also rather friable and breaks with a hackly fracture. Dimensions: height: 163mm; rim diameter: 200mm; base diameter: 80mm; wall thickness: 8.7-27.8mm. Context: found just outside Cist L, unknown whether it was originally placed in Cist L. 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