The Archaeogy of the Findhorn and Culbin Dunes

The Bronze Age finds

Early on in the fieldwalking, material characteristic of the Bronze Age began to be found. The finds were fragmentary and unstratified—not in a secure deposit—and lying on the surface. But over time it became clear that they were limited to two discrete areas: BA1 is in the heart of the site; 100m to the north, BA2 is at the very coast edge. It also became clear that at both sites, material was still eroding from higher up in the adjacent dune.

While hilltop locations with panoramic views over farmland were commonly chosen for burials in the Bronze Age, coastal locations may have been chosen for another reason. Water seems to have held special meaning for prehistoric people, and land bordering water bodies was considered by them to be liminal—bordering two worlds, those of the living and the dead, or of the material and spirit worlds. This would also have included their connection with their ancestors. Deliberate deposition of valuable objects, or votive offerings, into water was also a common practice in the Bronze Age, and other periods.

Below are some photographs of the objects from the BA1 findspot.

Copper alloy fragments(Photo Alison Sheridan, NMS)

Copper alloy fragments. These look as if they may be pieces of a
brooch pin (Photo Alison Sheridan, NMS),

Faience bead fragment. Similar beads were found in
an urned cremation burial in Findhorn Village in the
1980s (Shepherd and Shepherd 2001).

Flint strike-a-light. These have been found in other
Bronze Age burials in Britain.

Pot sherds, one with externally applied slip.

Thick-walled pot sherds (approx. 25mm thick), with
coarse inclusions, one with a flat rim. These may
be pieces of a cremation urn.

Burnt bone, stained with what appears to be copper. Pieces of this bone were radiocarbon dated in 2025
and returned a date of 1737–1542 cal BC (Funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland). This places it
within 52 years (raw, BP) of the 102 Findhorn Village urned cremation, which contained the largest assemblage
of faience beads ever found in Britain and Ireland (Shepherd and Shepherd 2001). Some of the bone fragments
in this burial in Findhorn village were also stained with what proved to be copper alloy, though no metal objects
were found in the contents of the urn.

Below are some finds from the BA2 assemblage

Beacause so much of the coast has been lost to erosion, these Bronze Age finds may represent just a small portion of what was initially deposited here, the remainder having been lost to the sea.