Fragments of a cinerary urn

This ceramic urn, missing its base, was found at Callange at Ceres in Fife. It contained cremated human remains and an unburnt flint knife. The urn was found upside down, placed on a flat stone and covered by another stone slab.

The urn, here pictured upside down, is decorated all over its exterior and on the rim band. The decoration consists of impressions of thumb- and fingernails, and fingertips, and there are also incised lines encircling the body of the pot.

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.

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