4,000-year-old pots link prehistoric Scotland with the Netherlands

Edinburgh, Feb 21 : Recent analysis of 4,000-year-old pots ecovered during an excavation of two graves at Upper Largie in cotland, has provided exciting evidence linking prehistoric cotland with the Netherlands.

The analysis of the pots was done by Alison Sheridan of National useums Scotland.

It revealed early international style beakers of the type found round the lower Rhine, which is the modern-day Netherlands and a trange hybrid of styles that suggest Irish and Yorkshire nfluences.

"These finds are very rare," said Martin Cook, the AOC rchaeology Project Officer, who oversaw the excavations in 2005.

"I think there are three or four other examples that early in cotland. We initially didn't realise how unusual they were, as t is so unusual to find three beaker ceramic vessels in the same eature," he added.

The excavations also revealed two graves within a complex eolithic and Bronze Age ritual landscape composed of monuments ncluding an Early Neolithic cursus (long earthwork) and an Early ronze Age timber circle.

Although no human remains were recovered in either grave, Martin elieves a human body had been laid in the pit.

The construction of the grave shows strong Dutch parallels uggesting that its occupant may have been a Dutch immigrant.

"The grave is so early and the style of ceramic is so rare for his period that it's either an immigrant or a first or second eneration descendant who still knows these techniques," said artin.

"The pots are made from local material which certainly suggests n immigrant or a second generation person," he added.

ANI