68 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
X. 
PREHISTORIC ARCHAOLOGY IN 
ABERDEEN DISTRICT 
BY 
R, W. REID, M.D., LL.D., F.R.CS., 
EMERITUS REGIUS PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND HON. CURATOR 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 
TueE following account refers to the part of the North-east of Scotland 
composed roughly of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine. 
In that area there is no evidence that can be definitely associated with 
Paleolithic man, but in it, however, there are traces from which an idea 
may be arrived at of the physical appearances, habits and culture of the 
people inhabiting it during the late Mesolithic and the subsequent Neo- 
lithic period, which is ‘‘ generally believed to have ended in this country 
about 2000 B.c., and during the Bronze Age, which extended probably from 
about 2000 B.C. to 500 B.c.”’ It must be understood, however, that these 
periods, which are largely cultural, are not sharply separated from one 
another, but overlap to a considerable extent. ‘The traces are chiefly 
interments and artifacts which have been found scattered irregularly in 
the soil. 
Meso.itHic AGE.—As regards the Mesolithic Age, the only traces 
which are found of the inhabitants are small finely chipped implements 
of flint about ? in. long and known, because of their small size, as ‘ pigmy’” 
flints. ‘These have been found in fields near old river terraces in Banchory 
Ternan on Deeside in Kincardineshire. ‘Their use is a mystery, but it 
has been conjectured that they were hafted to serve as knives, employed 
as teeth for saws, or used as gravers, borers, etc. 
NEOLITHIC AGE.—In the Neolithic Age, no traces of man beyond his 
artifacts have been found, unless it should prove that certain long cairns 
found at Longmanhill, N.B. Gamrie, Banffshire ; Balnagowan, Aboyne ; 
Newhills, Aberdeenshire; and Gourdon, Kincardineshire, belong 
to this age. These include pottery, implements in flint and stone, 
characterised by their fine shape and careful finish, which pass into the 
succeeding Early Bronze Age. The vessel from Craig, Auchindoir, 
Aberdeenshire, in the Anthropological Museum at Marischal College, 
is a good example of the pottery of the age. In addition to this vessel 
the only remains of such Neolithic pottery as yet recorded from this 
district are fragments of urns from Knapperty Hillock, from Finnercy, 
Echt, and from Ferniebrae, Chapel of Garioch, all in Aberdeenshire. 
Bronze AGE.— Short stone cist interments—It is when the Bronze Age 
is reached that evidences of man and his works become abundant. The 
most interesting of these are the short cist interments, concerning which 
