| Summary : The site of a round cairn quarried for and excavated in 1795. No evidence survives on the ground. 2 cists were found, both apparently beneath the mound. One was rock-cut, but featured a flat slab forming one of its four sides, and another used as a cover stone. It contained an adult inhumation, beneaththe head of which were two flints described as arrowheads. Also attached to the skull was a large piece (2 feet long, 9 inches wide, 6 inches thick) of what the excavator called "dressed Derbyshire black marble". The other cist was formed from flat slabs, 4 for the sides and one onthe bottom, and was described as standing within the "natural soil", although it may have been standing on the original surface. This cist was apparently "full of ahses and burnt bones". Secondary burials comprised 3 urns found in close proximity to each other on the southeast side of the mound. Each was full of ashes and burnt bones, and at least one was a Food Vessel. On top of one of the urns (or its contents) was a flint arrowhead, while another featured a "smooth stone". On the eastern side were two inhumations on the original ground surface, one with a pointed object of limestone described by the excavator as a "spearhead". |
More information : A cairn on the summit of Fin Cop (72 yards NW of the hill-fort rampart and 14 yards from the precipice, and so at c. SK 1742 7113), 161' in diameter, was excavated c. 1796 prior to destruction by the farmer. Two cists were found, one containing only ashes and burnt bone, and the other an inhumation with 2 leaf-shaped arrowheads. Elsewhere in the cairn were 3 urns (including a Food Vessel of Manby's type 1a) with cremations and 2 other inhumations on the level ground. (1-2)
There is no ground evidence of this cairn, but the suggested siting would be very suitable. (3)
Additional reference. (4)
|