A Long Cist at Newbigging
Cist pre-excavation. Image copyright AOC Archaeology Group
What appears to be a long cist with a partially-surviving capstone has been identified by staff from AOC Archaeology Group during the course of evaluation trenching conducted in advance of the third phase extenson to the sand and gravel quarry at Newbigging, South Lanarkshire. This work was undertaken as a condition of planning consent on the advice of the West of Scotland Archaeology Service, and follows on from the identification of multi-phase prehistoric deposits during the first phase of expansion (see previous news item).
The cist occupies a narrow ridge of ground within the proposed quarry expansion, and is aligned east-west, which would suggest an early Christian date. However, the Sites and Monuments Record contains an entry relating the identification of a cist in February 1977, also found during operations at Newbiggingmill Quarry. This cist, which was excavated by the RCAHMS before it was destroyed, was situated at a height of about 225m OD on the crest of a narrow ridge. Like the cist identified by AOC Archaeology Group, the cist found in 1977 was aligned east-west. It had been constructed in an oval pit and consisted of five massive slabs of red sandstone, one of which had formed the cover-stone. However, on excavation the cist was found to contain the remains of an adult female, who had been inhumed in a flexed position on her right side; the head was at the W end, and close to it stood a beaker containing a small flint knife. A smaller beaker was found in an inverted position close to the N side-slab.
The cist identified by AOC Archaeology Group has yet to be excavated, though the identification of a cist of similar dimensions and topographic position in the immediate vicinity raises the possibility that the newly-identified cist may similar date from the Bronze Age rather than the early Christian period.