Eagle secret of Bronze Age burial

The tightly clustered group of 29 cremation pits, one containing eagle talons, was uncovered at Skilmafilly when the gas maintenance company Transco was excavating and installing its 56 million gas pipeline from St Fergus to Aberdeen.

With no previous indications of the burial site, either from ground-level observations or aerial photographs, the pits were stumbled on by chance. Transco called in archaeological contractors to check the site while the pipeline was being installed.

Of the 29 pits containing remains, 11 revealed cremation urns with ashes, some of which were laid to rest individually, others seemingly as families. The remains belonged to a community living in the area west of Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, between 2000BC and 1500BC. In all, the remains of at least 35 people were unearthed.

There were also several important artefacts from the period. An ornate stone bead was found, as were bone pins and antler toggles, probably used to fasten the garments of the deceased, which went on the pyre with the person.

A skilfully crafted flint leaf-shaped knife was discovered with the ashes of an old man, and two golden eagle talons were found in an urn containing the remains of a child and two adults. It is the first time the talons of a golden eagle have been found in a Bronze Age burial site, and experts believe it indicates that the community believed in an after-life, with their purpose perhaps being to protect the child in the journey to the next world. It also serves to indicate the prestige in which the bird was held at the time, possibly being revered and serving as a religious totem.

Previously unused radio carbon dating techniques developed at Groningen University in the Netherlands allowed researchers at CFA Archaeology in Musselburgh to date the ashes and bones accurately.

Dr Melanie Johnson, post excavation manager at CFA Archaeology, said: "The fact that we have dated every single person that we found cremated is hugely significant in archaeological terms.

"We do not stumble across sites like this very often, and it also helps with dating all the objects that were found with the deceased."

Many of those buried were suffering medical ailments, including cranial pitting, dental disease, spinal degeneration and arthritis, all of which were relatively common at the time and do not indicate that the community was in uncommonly poor health.

Dr Alison Sheridan, the head of prehistory at the National Museums of Scotland and an expert on the Bronze Age, said: "There is a huge amount we can learn from this site, in particular from the accuracy with which it has been dated."

Dr Sheridan said the remains belonged to members of a "self-sufficient farming community". She said: "We don’t know very much about their houses because, being organic, you very rarely find traces of their buildings. However, in all probability they would have lived in fairly substantial roundhouses and their lives would not have been miserable, by any means."

The population of Bronze Age Scotland is difficult to estimate, but Dr Sheridan said it would have been at least several thousand in this community’s time. She concluded: "They would have had trade routes in tin from Devon and Cornwall, and the flint may have come from the north-west of Scotland. You could dress them in modern clothes and if they walked down the street they’d be indistinguishable from us."