The National Museums Scotland ‘Dating cremated bones project’

Abstract

• Results from the ‘Dating Cremated Bones Project’ The second year of what is hoped to be a three-year project has continued to provide interesting new dates from prehistoric Scottish cremated human bone (see DES 2001, 129 for results from year 1). Sampling continued to focus on material with ‘interesting’ artefactual associations, and to cover a range of Bronze Age urn types. Among the former is the ‘Wessex 1’ type dagger from Auchterhouse, Angus. Its date, along with that previously obtained for the ‘Wessex 2’ razor/knife from Gilchorn (ibid.), and the date relating to the gold discs from Barnhill, Angus (see below), does not simply assist in establishing a chronological point of reference for these important finds, but also provides new comparative dating information relevant to the poorly-dated series of rich ‘Wessex’ burials in southern England