No worries, Peter; my main intention was to bring out just such information as yours and John's. Though actually I see from re-reading the article that the detailed location was described after all , I just hadn't given it enough thought.
The rumour of more cists that were ignored is interesting; seems from the concentrations of graves as though Stevenston must have been well surrounded with Bronze Age cemeteries . So for all the caution of Mr Morrison's remarks it's not impossible that it was quite an important centre back in those days, a thought that I'm sure will please all you Stinsonians.... pity we'll probably never know for sure.
Further close-up present-day pictures here from the Heritage Centre of the Food Vessel found at Pun Brae:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/5552818726/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And one of the Cinerary Urns found at Misk Knowes:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44850481@N05/5552821592/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
the more detailed article about which now follows, This one was written by a Herald journalist; Alex Morrison', in his article which I posted earlier, gives a more expert gloss on some of the contents of the grave. He also seems to be implying there, that it was more of the date of the other finds , and not quite so much earlier as suggested here.
Susan
THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF STEVENSTON
Ii is quite commonplace in the summer time to hear or read of parties of archaeologists, generally university lecturers and students, spending time digging for relics of the past, usually in places which by traditions or appearance suggest that excavation might be profitable.
There have been few deliberately arranged 'digs' needed in this locality ; partly because there may be little of interest buried below the surface, but also because archaeological remains have appeared without anyone specifically looking for them, as happened in Stevenston about 70 years ago.
In February of 1906, Mr Robert Irvine, of Stevenston, saw a block of whinstone projecting above the sand dunes at Misk hills near Ardeer and was naturally surprised that such stone should appear in a sand hill. As it was severe wintry weather he did not investigate at the time but ten days later he noticed that a second stone was visible and on going to examine it he felt the ground gravelly under his feet.
Rightly concluding that the stones had been exposed by stormy winds blowing away the sand which had covered them, Mr Irvine carefully moved the stones and gravel and found beneath them four prehistoric burial urns.
With Mr J. M. Orr, Saltcoats, Mr Irvine excavated the area, and a spade depth down in the sand they exposed what they described as a "cairn," about 15 feet long by 10 feet wide and 3 feet high, consisting of large stones covering some 14 prehistoric urns. The large stones were closely packed around and on top of the urns and above the stones there was a layer of white pebbles. The stones must obviously have been carried by hand froma considerable distance.
Not all urns were intact, but about eight of them were in excellent preservation — and so were their contents. Three of the urns had lids of soft clay, one of them lay slanting although the others were upright, and one of them curiously, was placed upside down.
Most of the urns measured about 9 inches high, about 8 inches in diameter across the top and four or five at the bottom. One of them, only five inches high, contained the bones of a child.
Also found in the cairn were a large hammer-stone of irregular shape, a fine slickstone, and a large piece of sandstone which appeared to have been used as a combined polisher and shaping block.
All the urns contained calcined bones, and varying numbers of quartz pebbles. This latter feature remains a puzzle: it was thought at first that the number of pebbles referred to the number of years (or moons, or whatever) that the dead person had lived, but it was later found that while one urn contained 16 pebbles, another of similar size with adult bones contained only one pebble. The inclusion of the pebbles in the urns was obviously deliberate and must have had some significance. Another intriguing question is why one of the urns was placed upside down.
No stone or metal implements or weapons were found in any of the urns nor in the vicinity.All the urns were hand-made, were unglazed in any way and had not been very well fired, and the clay used in their manufacture had not been of very good quality.
The bones in the urns were of bodies which had apparently been cremated, and although some attempts had been made to decorate the urns, the decorations were quite primitive.
Experts dated the urns to about 4000 years ago — and although some civilisations were quite advanced by then, it is no discredit to the early inhabitants to say that they were seemingly still little beyond the stone age.
Smaller finds had been made in the Stevenston area in the previous century, but indications are that the prehistoric community was a fairly small one. What they did and what they looked like can only be a matter of speculation: all bones gave evidence that they were people of small stature and they had curiously small hands.
It is possible that they were a nomadic tribe who may not have paused in the area for very long. Perhaps the strongest argument in favour of this suggestion lay in what was possibly the oddest discovery of all — in the smaller urn containing the child's bones and two quartz pebbles there were a number of still-bright pieces of gold leaf.
Maybe Stevenston's earliest inhabitants had found gold in the area . . . but nobody has ever really quite believed it.
totally lost track of time, it will need another visit.
I believe there have been some archaeological discoveries at the North Shore end of Ardrossan, though I think they were rather less far back in date than these ones; but I've never heard of any ancient remains at all being dug up in and around Saltcoats. So there's certainly no doubt in my mind that we all have to yield precedence to you Stinsonians as having the most anciently-established settlement of the Three Towns.
