Cinerary Urn, Garrochar Farm, Creetown

Re-assembled from its original components, this is a plain bucket shaped cinerary urn with a broad rim and broad flat base. It has a series of holes pierced in side, close to rim, and the base has subsequently been replaced. This urn contained the cremated bones of an adult. Hazel wood was probably used for the cremation as small carbonised fragments were also found at the site.   Unlike neolithic people who usually buried their dead communally in chambered tombs, Bronze Age people preferred to bury their dead singly. During the early part of the period people were usually buried in a crouched position in stone cists, but later cremation was preferred with the remains interred in urns like these. They created cemeteries by burying several urns at one site, sometimes marking it with a cairn or mound of earth and stones. The urns were often buried upside down. They were decorated with twisted cord or string impressions and incised and impressed oval, circular and diamond shapes.