Pecked carvings of two Bronze Age flat axe-heads on the N end-slab of the burial cist inside Nether Largie North round cairn, Kilmartin, Scotland, UK.


Pecked carvings of two Bronze Age flat axe-heads on the bottom R corner of the N end-slab of the central burial cist inside Nether Largie North round cairn, Kilmartin Glen, Scotland, UK. The underside of the cist's massive capstone is also carved with at least 10 bronze axe-heads & some 40 (41) cup-marks. As the axes overlie the cups the capstone may have been fashioned from an earlier, Neolithic monument such as a standing stone. The cairn was excavated in 1930 by Craw & reconstructed in the early 1970s. The cist lay near the centre of the cairn, it contained a human molar, charcoal & ochre suggesting an inhumation burial which rotted away. Nearby lay a pit containing an ox tooth, dark soil & charcoal. Two upright slabs, one decorated with two pecked circles, were also recovered from the cairn which was originally solid & around 21m across x 3m high. Part of a prehistoric linear cemetery of five cairns in Kilmartin Glen.


Size: 3779px × 2650px
Location: Nether Largie North Round Cairn, Kilmartin Valley, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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