Recently published analyses led by GUARD Archaeology have revealed why a hoard of precious bronze ornaments was buried on the Black Isle almost three thousand years ago.

The archaeological finds were discovered during an excavation in 2020-21 ahead of the construction of new homes in Greenside Rosemarkie by Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd). GUARD Archaeology were then commissioned in 2024 to lead the post-excavation analyses. The analyses were undertaken by experts drawn from across Britain including National Museums Scotland, University of Glasgow, various independent specialists and GUARD Archaeology itself.

The post-excavation analyses of finds recovered from Rosemarkie revealed much more, not only about the community who buried this hoard almost three thousand years ago but about the people who inhabited the site before them.

The first evidence of human activity at Rosemarkie was traces of Mesolithic and early Neolithic activity, thought it was only from c. 3300 to 3000 BC that the first demonstrable evidence for permanent inhabitation took place, likely a small farmstead.

A hiatus followed, punctuated sometime between 3000 BC and 2000 BC by one of the most interesting cremation burials from the region, containing the phalange bone of a brown bear buried along with a fragment of a polished flint axehead. The bear bone and axehead fragment most likely had the same significance and meaning as the bear as a whole and the intact axehead. The bear bone may have had a protective function in the deceased’s travel to the afterlife.

Inhabitation of the site returned during the Bronze Age when a sequence of seven roundhouses was inhabited. This phase of settlement was a long lived one, lasting more than six centuries to the turn of the eighth century BC. Detailed examination of the radiocarbon dates suggests that the different roundhouses were not all occupied at the same time but represent a small community, perhaps a family lineage, building successive roundhouses, occupying different spaces in different periods across the site.

One of these roundhouses produced metalworking debris, including identifiable mould fragments for manufacturing a sword, spearhead and sickle along with bracelets. And it was around this same period, towards the tail end of this settlement that a rare and well-preserved late Bronze Age metalwork hoard was buried. Comprising a complete penannular ringed ornament lying on top, a fragment of penannular ringed ornament placed within the complete ornament’s circumference, a cup-ended ornament at the very base and six bracelets.

Through careful minute analysis of every strand of evidence, an enormous amount of information was discovered about the people who buried this hoard at the tail end of the Bronze Age.

The intact penannular ringed ornament, adorned with 37 rings, is the most complete and complicated example of its type yet found in Scotland. Its fragmentary counterpart had 13 surviving rings, and both ornaments were probably made by the same craftworker using the lost wax casting method. This was a very rare process only used in the creation of highly prized objects, and workshops to produce such pieces were few and far between in Bronze Age Scotland. The purpose of these ornaments is unclear as the complete one from Rosemarkie was too small to fit over an average human head, and it showed no signs of being distorted in order to be worn around the neck.

X-ray imaging of the cup-ended ornament revealed that it was cast as an entire object with no visible seams or joins. There are several comparable finds known, mostly Irish and made of gold, but its closest parallel is a bronze version from the Poolewe Hoard in the West Highlands. The Rosemarkie example is much sturdier and thicker than any of these, however.

The bracelets were also unusual as no two were alike – perhaps they had been contributed by different individuals or households. Three of the six show signs of distortion, suggesting they had been repeatedly worn, and one stood out as the heaviest known penannular bar bracelet yet found in Scotland. While none of the mould fragments found at Rosemarkie matched the objects in the hoard, the objects themselves speak of the local community’s access to a large supply of bronze for the ostentatious display of wealth and status. In terms of where this metal came from, isotope and metallurgical analysis revealed that the metals came from Wales and England, indeed exact and close matches with the bronze from the Carnoustie Hoard, clearly signalling the direction from which Bronze Age smiths in Scotland were sourcing their metals.

What makes the Rosemarkie hoard so significant is not just the metalwork. It’s the organic remains found clinging to it. Bracken stems and fronds were used as packing when the artefacts were buried. Tree bast, the inner bark of a tree, was concentrated around the ornaments, following the curves of each. It also formed a large clump at the base of the pit, entangled with the lowest artefacts. Despite being buried for thousands of years, this mass was strong enough to hold the artefacts in place and would not release its quarry easily.

But when they were eventually teased apart, this mass was revealed to be something very rare indeed: a simple overhand knot that had been tied around the cup-ended ornament when the tree bast was still in pristine condition, binding it to three of the bracelets. A sample taken from the bast provided a secure radiocarbon date for the burial of the Rosemarkie hoard: 894-794 BC, at the very end of the Bronze Age.

There are several possible motivations for the burial of an ancient hoard of bronze. There are founders’ hoards or metalworkers’ stashes – often a range of damaged objects and fragments that could be recycled, as was common practice during the Bronze Age. There are votive hoards, often composed of deliberately broken objects that were thrown into watery places with no chance (or apparent desire) of recovery. And then there are hoards like Rosemarkie – and Carnoustie too. This third category shows another side to the story, representing precious items that were carefully packed, tied together, stacked on top of one another and neatly buried for safekeeping close to a settlement where they could be guarded and easily retrieved when the time came.

The mystery then is not so much why this hoard was buried. But why the time never came for the Rosemarkie Bronze Age community to retrieve their valuable belongings.

The archaeological work was funded by Pat Munro Homes (a division of Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd) and was required as a condition of planning consent by Highland Council who are advised on archaeological matters by the Highland Council Historic Environment Team.

ARO62: ‘A Hoard, Spear Moulds and a Bear, Oh my!’  a Late Bronze Age Settlement at Greenside farm, Rosemarkie by Iraia Arabaolaza, Rachel Buckley, Sam Williamson and Alun Woodward is freely available to download from Archaeology Reports Online.