Top part of a ceramic urn

This top part of a ceramic urn was found at Newlands in Glasgow. It contained cremated bones and other pyre debris. The urn dates from between 2050 and 1600 BC.

The urn, here pictured upside down as it would have been placed in the burial, is lacking its base. The large rim area is decorated with raised bands forming large triangles in relief, filled in with faint lattice lines, and the body with vertical bands.

By around 1750 BC, in mainland Scotland, cremation had become the favoured funerary custom. Cremated remains were gathered from the funeral pyre, sometimes cleanly, sometimes, as here, mixed with pyre debris. They were usually placed in a large urn.

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