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The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map : Index >>
Stones Forum >> Experts aghast as police disturb Bronze Age tomb
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Experts aghast as police disturb Bronze Age tomb |
Andy B
Joined:
13-02-2001
Messages: 7001
from Surrey, UK
 OFF-Line
|  Posted 19-03-2009 at 13:27
Police officers in northern Scotland have been accused of vandalising a Bronze Age site through ignorance after they removed bones and textiles from the 4,000-year-old burial chamber, apparently because they thought they were investigating a crime scene.
The burial chamber, or cist, was discovered intact, in a field near Oykel Bridge in Sutherland. The area is rich in Bronze Age remains, but this find was of huge importance to archaeologists. Unlike the vast chambered cairns of the earlier Neolithic period, burials from the metal-working people of the Bronze Age are modest affairs with artefacts such as pottery most commonly found.
Inside the cist was a skeleton in the foetal position, an unusual “crouched burial”, and - rarer still - the chamber contained well-preserved items made of woven materials.
Oblivious to the importance of the site - described as unique by one authority - police removed bones and other materials from the grave for forensic analysis, in actions which were described as “clumsy and “incompetent” by critics.
More in The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5927895.ece
Also the Northern Echo
http://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/5661/Police_blamed_for_destroying
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