The Border of Farming and the Cultural Markers - Nordlige Verdener

16
other words, to employ a commonlyused
term, they had been grass-tempered.
They have squared-off rims and appear
to have been uncarinated, although
there are hints of a slight carination on
one sherd. Encrusted organic residue on
the interior of the lower part of one pot,
together with burning of its exterior,
shows that it had been used for cooking;
and the presence of repair holes in several
sherds shows that at least two of
these pots had been used for some time
when deposited. Also present was one
large and one or two smaller lumps of
burnt potter’s clay (Fig. 5.1), kneaded
into dough-shaped pieces (and retaining
finger impressions). These did not contain
traces of burnt-out grass, although
the lithic inclusions are comparable with
those in the vessels.
The layer of ‘charred wood’ mentioned
by Kinghorn is represented in the Museum
collection by five fragments of roundwood
(Fig. 5.2), of which one (of Maloideae
species) provided the radiocarbon
date. That fragment, plus two of the others,
was identified by Dr Susan Ramsey,
who found that the others were of birch
(Betula).
Overall, the find from Modesty is intriguing,
and it raises the question of the nature
of the deposit. The range of artefactual
material present, and the
condition of the axeheads and knives,
sets this find apart from the hoard finds
such as the Shurton Brae knife hoard,
and the presence of cooking pots, potter’s
clay and a quern and rubber all
point towards possible domestic activity.
Clearly there had been a considerable
amount of burning at this site, which
led to the formation of a 4-5 inch (c. 10–
13 cm)-thick layer of charred wood resting
on the subsoil, and a slightly thicker
layer of ‘yellow peat ashes’ above this.
It would be worth re-investigating the
mound, if any of it remains; the householder
had disturbed it in making a garden
for his house.
The relatively broad spread of the Modesty
charcoal’s calibrated date is due to
the shape of the calibration curve at this
point, although the fact that at the
68.2% probability level of the calibrated
date range lies within 3370–3330 cal BC
suggests that we are perhaps more likely
to be dealing with activity within the
third, rather than the last, quarter of the
millennium. This date helps to dispel the
uncertainty about the chronology of felsite
exploitation, which had hitherto relied
on observations about the discovery of
fragments of felsite knives or axeheads
in later sites, e.g. at Stanydale (Calder
1950), Tougs (Hedges 1986: 19 and see
p.30 for further examples) and Scord of
Brouster (Ballin 2005: 15 and illus. 24.
Unfortunately, however, the provenance of
this object within the Scord of Brouster