Neolithic pottery.


A prehistoric urn was uncovered during routine agricultural ploughing on 26th May 1955. The discovery was reported to JR Bruce of the Manx Museum and the site investigated the following day.


The urn proved to be a round-based Neolithic pot of the Ronaldsway type, and had been buried wedged between rough slabs of the local stone. The farm workers who discovered the site reported that the pot had been covered by one or two slabs, and that when these were initially disturbed the pot appeared to be empty.


The urn had been perforated by stones from below and partially compressed by a slab to one side, and was recovered in several pieces. Several detached sherds were recovered from a midden lying just to the north of the findspot, where they had been placed by one of the farmworkers the day before.


The excavation report suggests that the slabs around the pot were not part of a deliberate structure, but were instead a natural occurrence in what was otherwise a noticeably stoney field. Nevertheless, together with the covering slabs they appear to have formed a structure which was effective in preventing soil from entering the mouth of the vessel, which was empty.


A brief handwritten account of the discovery and excavation was prepared by Bruce, along with a set of photographs, which together allow the findspot to be quite accurately located. The site lies on a slight eminence in a sloping field with a south-easterly aspect, which Bruce noted was locally referred to as 'the Cronk Field', perhaps alluding to the former presence of a mound.


The urn was donated by the landowner and is now in the Manx National Heritage collections, accession no. 1983-0209.