PREHISTORIC ARCH/EOLOGY IN ABERDEEN DISTRICT 71 
ox-hide, a polished stone hammer, bones of boar, etc. Small pieces of 
charcoal have sometimes been found both in the cists and in the soil 
surrounding them, and since the bones in the cists had not been cremated, 
it is probable that fire was used in the funeral rites of those people. 
The method of interment by inhumation did not cease abruptly, but 
gradually merged into burial after cremation. A cist was exposed at 
Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, which contained an urn of the drinking-cup type, 
along with ashes of bones lying loosely on the floor of the cist and not 
inside the urn. Another cist, now in the University Museum, was found 
at Auchlin, Aberdour, Aberdeenshire, in which human skeletal remains 
were found which had been subjected to the action of fire, along with the 
remains of a child’s skeleton which had not been burned, and pieces of 
charcoal. 
Cremation or cinerary urns are of a larger size than those usually found 
in short stone cists. They are unglazed, made of a coarser pottery and 
badly fired. In most cases their shape is that of two truncated cones united 
at their bases—the cone which enters into the formation of the mouth 
forming the smaller part of the urn. ‘The ornamentation, which is mostly 
confined to the upper part of the urn, consists of horizontal and wavy 
ridges ; discs and bosses; horizontal, vertical and oblique lines; and 
circular indentations about a quarter of an inch in diameter which are to 
be found in the neighbourhood of the mouth. From their appearances 
they are classified as overhanging rim urns, cordoned urns, and encrusted 
urns, examples of which, found in Aberdeenshire, are to be seen in the 
Anthropological Museum at Marischal College, Aberdeen. 
This class of pottery has been found in many parts of the district and 
in various situations. Sometimes the urn is merely placed in a cavity of 
the ground without any indication on the surface of its presence. In 
other cases the interment was within the area of a standing stone circle, 
or sometimes under a cairn. The usage as regards the calcined bones 
varies. At one time the urn is inverted over them, at another it is placed 
on its base and contains them with a flat stone laid over the mouth. Along 
with the bones there frequently occur ornaments in gold and other 
substances, as well as implements and weapons in bronze or stone. 
Associated with the burning of the dead and sometimes placed within 
cinerary urns are the diminutive and ornamented vessels known as 
‘incense cups.’ The name is, however, purely conjectural. The only 
example from this district, which is now in the University Anthropological 
Museum, is not of the perforated variety, but shows a loop supposed to 
be for suspension. It was discovered on the surface of the ground on 
the Hill of Keir, Skene, Aberdeenshire, with an ammonite inside it and 
a flint arrow-head near by. 
Stone circles—Perhaps none of the archzological remains which the 
district yields are so well known as the circles of upright stones which are 
commonly called standing stone circles or Druid circles. They consist 
of upright monoliths which vary in number and are arranged in a circular 
manner. 
The simple circle, the most common form, may be divided into two 
classes according as it does, or does not, possess a ‘ recumbent’ stone, 
