Aiding the interpretation of an Iron Age warrior grave from Alloa, Clackmannanshire

In 2003, an AOC Archaeology Group Conservator was summoned, under the terms of the Historic Scotland Conservation Call Off Contract, to a site in Alloa to assist GUARD archaeologists removing artefacts from a newly-discovered Iron Age cist burial, and bring them to AOC Archaeology Group’s laboratory for x-radiography, investigation and conservation. This site offered a wonderful opportunity not just for straightforward conservation, but also for a forensic approach. This allowed the AOC Conservator to search the artefacts themselves for clues about the body in the grave, the grave goods, and about the form of the grave itself.

The stone-built cist contained a single male inhumation. He had a copper alloy pin, a glass bead, 2 matching toe rings, a copper alloy pin, a spear and a sword. A series of rings were found on his chest and his back. Some of the rings had traces of leather present, and were probably from a complex leather baldric that passed round his body, and was probably used to secure his sword. There did not appear to have been a scabbard for the sword, which had been placed on the man’s chest.

When the artefacts were brought back to the AOC conservation laboratory several interesting pieces of evidence emerged. Traces of textile were preserved on the underside of the copper alloy rings: it was made of linen, hand-woven to give a herring-bone (twill) effect. Several fine hairs were preserved on the very tip of the copper alloy pin, perhaps deriving from the fur trim of a garment secured by the pin.

After conservation the sword was shown to have two central grooves, a bone grip, and copper alloy pommel and guard. There was evidence from one of the x-ray pictures that the blade may have had pattern-welding on it.

The conservation of the spear and the sword also revealed aspects of the grave itself. Two pieces of evidence showed that it was a burial chamber rather than a filled-in grave. The upper surface of the sword had no soil (nor any traces of a sheath, scabbard or covering) adhering to the corrosion layers, so it must have lain at the bottom of a cavity. The spearhead, which was found partly within the walls of the grave, also had a strange formation of iron corrosion products on the socket. Vertical “stalactites” of iron corrosion had formed, which could only have indicated that the metal was not in contact with the soil, and was suspended over a cavity.

AOC Conservator: Amanda Clydesdale
Client: Historic Scotland