child's pen

Components: top with porringer, floor, four legs. Carved decoration on the top and porringer: zigzag, linear, circular. Probable only the top comes from Albania (fragile and different kind of wood). Original label in museum's 'donor' file: 'with porringer attached for maize bread and milk, or maize flour and milk. Spoon to follow later. From Shala (Roman Catholic tribe) in N E Albania.'

Hasluck, Margaret

Early: 1850 Late: 1934 Period:

wood

Albania Shala (North East)

In Europe about 3000-1700BC, from the late Neolithic into the Bronze Age, flat-based, finely made pots, known as beakers, were widespread. They have an S- or Z-shaped profile, and are decorated with bands of fine incised geometric pattern. In NE Scotland the Northern beaker types are associated with the introduction of metal working and are often found in individual cist burials, both probably related to settlement of people from Europe. Later beakers were made locally, and often have archaic or idiosyncratic features. This beaker is a Developed Northern type. It has a curving profile with a flaring neck and is finely made and decorated. Its colour is a noticeable red-orange. The decoration is finely executed with a comb, in lines and zig-zags, in wide bands on the foot, belly and neck and only separated by two narrow plain zones at the waist and above the foot. The beaker was found in a cist at Stoneywood, Newhills, Aberdeenshire in the 19th century, and was accompanying a skeleton.