Cinerary urn

Add to album

This ceramic urn was found in a flat Bronze Age cremation cemetery at Kettle Farm in Fife. It was used to hold cremated human remains sometime between 2000 and 1500 BC. Unusually it was found upright in a pit.

The urn has a heavy overhanging rim. It is decorated with incised lines and lines of twisted and whipped cord impressions, arranged in zigzag, lattice and other patterns.

By around 1750 BC, in mainland Scotland, cremation had become the favoured funerary custom. Cremated remains were gathered from the funeral pyre and usually placed in a large pottery urn, its top covered by a skin or stone.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-100-035-872-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.EQ 348
• Date: Between 2000 and 1500 BC
  
• Material: Ceramic, dark; rim heavy and overhanging; broad concavity below; zigzag, lattice and other patterns
  Pottery / urn
  
• Dimensions: 11.88" H; mouth 9.75" D; shoulder 10.00" D; base 4.00" D
  
• What: Pottery / urn
  
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Fife, Kingskettle, Kettle Farm
  
• Event:
• Description: Urn of dark ware with heavy overhanging rim, decorated with zigzag, lattice and other patterns, from Kettle Farm, Fife
  
• References:
  • Longworth, I.H. Collared urns of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: