by Sharon » Tue Apr 27, 2004 6:23 pm
Knappers Quarry
Alternative Names: Kilbowie
Type of Site: Burial Ground; Ritual Site
NMRS Number: NS57SW 22.00
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Location
Map reference: NS 5070 7130
Parish: Old Kilpatrick (Clydebank)
Council: West Dunbartonshire
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Archaeology Notes
NS57SW 22.00 5070 7130
NS57SW 22.01 NS 5089 7101 to NS 5097 7149 Trial Excavations; Beaker
(NS 5070 7130) A Bronze Age burial ground was uncovered in 1933-4 by workmen, and during excavations by Davidson, at Knappers Sand Quarry, on the E side of Duntocher Boulevard (Great Western Road). Some 34 deposits were found, including cremation inhumation burials, some under cairns. Artifacts found included a polished flint adze, a stone some 3' long and 21" broad at its widest, said to be an end stone of a cist, marked with two pecked double ellipses and other markings (this is now in Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum), an Early Bronze Age rivetted dagger, flint scrapers, flakes, segmented paste beads, jet beads, some six food vessels in varying degrees of preservation, fragments of unidentifiable Bronze Age pottery, a very small rim fragment of grey-black ware, with a fine plain surface, which Davidson suggests is probably Roman, and a few sherds of green-glazed medieval ware.
In September 1937, a grave was found at NS 5073 7127 (information from A S Robertson to OS, 1951) near Knappers farm. Roughly circular, with irregular boulder-built sides, it contained a Neolithic bowl and a plano-convex flint knife. A number of neolithic and Bronze Age sherds were also found in the area between 1937 and 1938. These artificats are now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).
In 1951, Mr Mann owned a number of items from this site, but after his death, his collection was given to Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. He also constructed a bogus henge, W of the Great Western Road; not far from the Kanppers Quarry.
Catalogue of finds and re-assessment of site, suggesting the existence of a henge or a Bronze Age Barrow, pre-dating a Food Vessel cemetery.
J M Davidson 1935; R W B Morris 1967; J M Coles 1971; V G Childe 1946; R R Mackay 1950; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1960; Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum 1955; L M Mann 1939; J N G Ritchie and H C Adamson 1982; Information from L M Mann to OS, 10 May 1951.
(Flat rivetted knife-dagger). Knife-dagger, two rivet-holes with rivets still in position, flat section. Recorded length 10.6cm, recorded width 3.7cm. Lost.
S Gerloff 1975.
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Collection Summary
Photographs: 110
Prints and Drawings: 33
Manuscripts: 1
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References
Childe, V G (1946 c)
Scotland before the Scots: being the Rhind lectures 1944,
London, 112,
Coles, J M (1971 b)
'Scottish Early Bronze Age metalwork',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 101, 1968-9, 90,
Davidson, J M (1935 )
'A Bronze Age cemetery at Knappers, Kilbowie, Dumbartonshire',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 69, 1934-5, 352-82,
Gerloff, S (1975 )
'The early bronze age daggers in Britain, and a reconsideration of the Wessex culture',
Prahistorische Bronzefunde, 4, 2, 1975, 165, no. 287,
Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums (1955 )
Annual report,
32,
Mackay, R R (1950 )
'Neolithic pottery from Knappers Farm, near Glasgow',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 82, 1947-8, 234-7,
Mackie and Davis, E W and A (1991 )
'New light on Neolithic rock carving. The petroglyphs at Greenland (Auchentorlie), Dumbartonshire',
Glasgow Archaeol J, 15, 1988-89, 144,
Mann, L M (1939 )
The Druid Temple Explained,
London and Glasgow,
Morris and Bailey, R W B and D C (1967 )
'The cup-and-ring marks and similar sculptures of South-Western Scotland: a survey',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 98, 1964-6, 160, No. 34,
PSAS (1960 )
'Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 91, 1957-8, 200,
RCAHMS (1978 d)
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Dumbarton District, Clydebank District, Bearsden and Milngavie District, Strathclyde Region,
The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series no 3, Edinburgh, 21, No. 8,
Ritchie, G (2002 )
'Excavation archives: preservation and chance',
Ballin Smith, B and Banks, I, In the shadow of the brochs: the Iron Age in Scotland,, A celebration of the work of Dr. Euan MacKie on the Iron Age of Scotland, Stroud, 207, 208,
Ritchie and Adamson, J N G and H C (1982 )
'Knappers, Dunbartonshire: a reassessment',
Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 111, 1981, 172-204,
Beware of yawning dogs.