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A Late Bronze Age Find from Pyotdykes, Angus, Scotland, with associated Gold, Cloth, Leather and Wood Remains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

John M. Coles ,
Herbert Coutts  and
M. L. Ryder
John M. Coles
Affiliation:
Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
Herbert Coutts
Affiliation:
Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee
M. L. Ryder
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organization, Edinburgh
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Extract

On the 29th October, 1963, a group of bronze objects was ploughed up in the ‘Old Road Field’, Pyotdykes farm, near Dundee, Angus (Nat. Grid Ref. NO 345348). The objects recovered were a bronze spearhead and two bronze swords (fig. 1). After news of the find had been communicated to the Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee, the area around the original find-spot was excavated by museum staff, and this yielded three additional pieces of bronze wire rivets from sword (2), but no other objects. Before the bronzes were revealed by ploughing, they must have been lying about 30 centimetres below the surface, just above a hard-pan layer which forms the subsoil in that part of the field.

Cleaning and treatment of the bronzes was carried out at the museum, when a plug of material was extracted from inside the spearhead socket (see App. I). This was sent to Dr M. L. Ryder for examination along with two pieces of wood and leather which the farmer had found adhering to sword (2) (see Part III). Subsequently the wooden fragments were examined in the Sub-department of Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge (see App. II).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 30 , December 1964 , pp. 186 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1964

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References

page 186 note 1 We should like to express our thanks to the following: Captain D. Clayhills-Henderson, the owner of the land on which the find was made, for his support and co-operation; Mr G. Robertson, son of the tenant-farmer, for giving us a detailed account of the discovery and for assisting in the subsequent excavation; the Director of Dundee Museum, Mr J. D. Boyd, and the Assistant Director, Mr J. Barwick, for their advice and help during the preparation of this report; Mr G. Mancini, Edinburgh, and Mr Henry Hodges, University of London Institute of Archaeology, for advice concerning the gold band on the spearhead; Miss A. S. Henshall, National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, for contributing Appendix I; Professor H. Godwin, University of Cambridge, and Miss C. A. Lambert, Sub-department of Quaternary Research, Cambridge, for examining the wood remains and for Appendix II.

page 188 note 1 Cowen, J. D., ‘Two Bronze Swords from Ewart Park, Wooler’, Arch. Ael., 4th ser., X (1933), p. 185Google Scholar.

page 188 note 2 Hawkes, C. F. C. and Smith, M. A., ‘On Some Buckets and Cauldrons of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages’, Ant. J., XXXVII (1957), p. 131CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coles, J. M., ‘Scottish Later Bronze Age Metalwork’, PSAS, XCIII (1959–1960), p. 29Google Scholar, with refs.; Eogan, G., The Bronze Sword in Ireland (Dublin)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

page 188 note 3 Raftery, J., ‘A Matter of Time’, JRSAI, XCIII (1963), pp. 109–10Google Scholar.

page 188 note 4 The closest comparisons are: sword (2): Dunsinane, Perthshire (Nat. Mus. Ant. Scot. L1957.2); sword (3): Carlingwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire (Nat. Mus. Ant. Scot. DL26).

page 188 note 5 For a summary of some of the methods of working hides and leathers, see Coles, J. M., ‘European Bronze Age Shields’, PPS, XXVIII (1962), p. 175Google Scholar, with reference to the Clonbrin shield. Examination of this shield, while not permitting identification of the exact method used in its hardening, has, however, confirmed the suggestion that this specimen was tanned with vegetable materials (ibid. pp. 176–9; see p. 194 in the present paper). The grave goods from two Beaker graves in Britain may possibly be leather-workers' tools (Ashbee, P., The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain (1960), pl. xi(a)Google Scholar; Antiquity, XXXVIII (1964), p. 57)Google Scholar.

page 188 note 6 Information kindly supplied by Mr John Cowen, Mr Colin Burgess, and Dr George Eogan.

page 189 note 1 Kingston Museum, Roots Coll. 746. A tongue-shaped chape from Wilburton, Cambs., has preserved fragments of wood and other organic material not yet fully identified. This seems to have extended down to the bottom of the chape (Univ. Mus. Arch. & Eth., Cambridge 1919.6.17).

page 189 note 2 The type of glue to be employed would have probably been either pinebark resin or birch pitch. Both forms are known from prehistoric Europe well before the Bronze Age. Both of these glues would have remained firm, if a bit brittle, in damp conditions. It is less likely that an animal glue, made by boiling bone and horn, followed by evaporation to concentrate, would have been used because this would be affected by the damp. I am grateful to Professor Richard Atkinson for helpful comments about prehistoric adhesives. See now Hodges, Henry, Artifacts (1964), pp. 162–5Google Scholar.

page 189 note 3 Forbes, R. J., Studies in Ancient Technology, V (1957), p. 14Google Scholar; see also p. 16.

page 190 note 1 Madsen, A. P., Antiquités Préhistoriques du Danemark (1873), pl. 4, 8Google Scholar; Broholm, H., Danmarks Bronzealder (1944). pl. 27, 6Google Scholar; (1943), no. 1283.

page 190 note 2 Magleby: Broholm (1943), no. 1556.

page 190 note 3 Muldbjerg: Broholm (1944), pl. 11, 4; Borum Eshøj: Broholm (1944), pl. 14, 1; comparable examples in Madsen, A. P., Afbildninger af Danske Oldsager og Mindesmaerker (1876), pls. 5 and 7Google Scholar.

page 190 note 4 Madsen (1876), pl. 2.

page 190 note 5 Cowen, J. D., ‘Bronze Swords in Northern Europe …’, PPS, XVIII (1952), p. 139, n.2Google Scholar.

page 190 note 6 Information kindly obtained from: Miss N. Sandars, Dr Moszolics, Dr Torbrügge, Dr Hasek; Keller, F., The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and Other Parts of Europe, 1 (1878), p. 159Google Scholar, notes traces of a wooden scabbard preserved inside a bronze chape, pl. xlvii, 10.

page 190 note 7 Moszolics, A., ‘Der Goldfund von Velem-Szentvid’, Praehistorica, I (1950), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

page 190 note 8 Ebert, M., Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, IX (1927), taf. 118, 1Google Scholar.

page 190 note 9 Information from Dr I. Hasek; National Museum, Prague 40.840.

page 191 note 1 Archaeologia, LXI (1909), p. 459Google Scholar; Archaeologia, LXXXIII (1933), p. 192Google Scholar.

page 191 note 2 e.g. Taunton, Somerset: Inv. Arch. GB 43, 16; Stibbard, Norfolk: GB 50, 1–5; Maentwrog, Merionethshire: GB 10, 4.

page 191 note 3 Smith, M. A., ‘Some Somerset Hoards and their place in the Bronze Age of Southern Britain’, PPS, XXV (1959), p. 78Google Scholar; Butler, J. J., ‘A Bronze Age Concentration at Bargeroosterveld’, Palaeohistoria, VIII (1960), p. 119Google Scholar.

page 191 note 4 Ambleside, Westmorland: publication forthcoming in Trans. Cumb. and Westmor. Ant. and Arch. Soc.

page 191 note 5 Only at Freefield, Aberdeenshire (Museum and Art Gallery, Aberdeen, 55.2.1).

page 191 note 6 Molesey, Surrey (London Mus. 49.107); Battersea, Surrey (Brentford Mus. O.1446); Cookham Weir, Bucks. (London Mus. 42.14/3).

page 191 note 7 Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford 1482.2290. I am grateful to the Museum for photographs and permission to publish, and to Mr D. Britton for assistance. The spearhead was published in The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London, n.s. 1 (1868–1969), p. 36Google Scholar. It was apparently found with a shaft of bog-oak, about 5 feet in length, still attached by a rivet, but now lost.

page 192 note 1 I am grateful to this Museum for supplying photographs and for permission to publish the find. The first publication of the spearhead was in Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum (1963), and I am grateful to Mr Robert Stevenson for first drawing my attention to this. Dr Tushingham and Mrs J. L. Coles kindly provided details of the spearhead.

page 192 note 2 The hatched triangle motif occasionally occurs on the blades of spearheads: Bilton, Yorkshire (J. Brit. Arch. Ass., V (1850), p. 349Google Scholar), here with the socket also decorated by three groups of transverse groovings, each supporting hatched triangles; Broadward, Herefords. (Arch. Camb., 4th ser., III (1872), p. 352Google Scholar).

page 192 note 3 Probably Ireland: Kemble, J., Horae Ferales (1863), pl. vi, 20, 30Google Scholar; Trent at Clifton, Notts; Bainbridge, Yorks; Brigmerston, Wilts (B.A.C.C., Oxford). An earlier Bronze Age spearhead, socket-looped with ridged blade, carries hatched triangles in two groups on the socket, Evans, J., Ancient Bronze Implements (1881), fig. 402Google Scholar.

page 192 note 4 Evans (1881), fig. 393.

page 192 note 5 British Museum, A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age (1920), fig. 25Google Scholar.

page 193 note 1 British Museum 54, 10–28, 2. I am grateful to Dr Ian Longworth for information about this find.

page 193 note 2 PSAS, XXVII (1892–1893), p. 112Google Scholar.

page 193 note 3 Armstrong, E. C. R., Catalogue of Irish Gold Ornaments in the Collection of the Royal Irish Academy (1933), pl. xixGoogle Scholar.

page 193 note 4 ibid., pls. i–vii.

page 193 note 5 Antiquity, XXXV (1961), p. 240, pl. xxxi (a)Google Scholar.

page 193 note 6 Antiquity, XXXVII (1963), p. 132, pl. XVGoogle Scholar.

page 193 note 7 The pieces were purchased by the Royal Ontario Museum in 1927 from the W. H. Fenton collection of Heston House, and were originally obtained by Fenton at Harrogate as a single group said to have been found locally.

page 194 note 1 Ryder, M. L., ‘Remains derived from Skin’ in Brothwell, D. R. and Higgs, E. S. (Eds.), Science in Archaeology (Thames and Hudson, 1963)Google Scholar.

page 194 note 2 ibid.

page 194 note 3 ibid.

page 194 note 4 ibid.

page 194 note 5 Ryder, M. L., “Report on the Meare Skin”, p. 98Google Scholar in Clark, J. G. D., ‘Neolithic Bows from Somerset, England, and the Prehistory of Archery in North-Western Europe’, PPS, XXIX (1963), pp. 50–98Google Scholar.

page 194 note 6 Coles, J. M., “European Bronze Age Shields’, PPS, XXVIII (1962), pp. 160, 175–9Google Scholar.

page 195 note 1 Ryder, M. L., “Report on the Meare Skin”, p. 98Google Scholar in Clark, J. G. D., ‘Neolithic Bows from Somerset, England, and the Prehistory of Archery in North-Western Europe’, PPS, XXIX (1963), pp. 50–98Google Scholar.

page 195 note 2 A. S. Henshall, PSAS (forthcoming).

page 197 note 1 Shawcross, F. W. and Higgs, E. S., ‘The Excavation of a Bos primigenius at Lowe's Farm, Littleport’, Proc. Camb. Ant. Soc., vol. 54 (1961), pp. 3–16Google Scholar.

page 197 note 2 Richie, J., PSAS, LXXXV (1950–1951), p. 163Google Scholar.

page 198 note 1 Identification made by Dr Ryder, Animal Breeding Research Organization, Edinburgh.

page 198 note 2 Henshall, A. S., ‘Textiles and Weaving Appliances in Prehistoric Britain’, PPS, XVI (1950), p. 130Google Scholar.