Earliest houses, Bronze Age cremations and tools found by archaeologists in Scotland

An early Bronze Age food vessel found at East Challoch Farm in the south of Scotland

© Guard Archaeology

A Neolithic home which is south-west Scotland’s earliest known house, two cemeteries carrying 20 Bronze Age cremations, a pair of rare jet necklaces and thousands of flint tools used in Mesolithic coastal industries have been discovered during the creation of a bypass in Dumfries and Galloway.

Work on the new Dunragit intersection has uncovered a huge variety of artefacts from 7,000 years of Scottish history. Criss-crossing palaeochannels on the edge of a former estuary obscured a house which is thought to date from 6000 BC, accompanied by a perforated stone adze used to work wood.

The remains of Neolithic dwellers are thought to come from a nearby ceremonial complex excavated by Manchester University diggers more than a decade ago, unearthing three concentric rings of timber posts initially spotted through aerial photography.

Read the rest of this article...