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University Collections

Encyclopaedia of the North East

M - Mortal to moss

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A large printed capital letter M with urns, grave goods, a model mortsafe, a gravestone, a paddle, an antler and an animal skull with large horns.

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mortal
1 adj Liable to death, causing death 
2 adj Very drunk or intoxicated 

Death comes to everyone. The people in the North East have their own traditions and preoccupations associated with death. From the earliest times they have raised monuments to their ancestors and to perpetuate the memory of contemporaries.

Urn with grave goods. Large earthenware urn with incised cross hatched decoration, and flint flakes, clay pin heads, a stone pendant and a bone toggle.

Urn and grave goods, Seggiecrook, Kennethmont (2000-1400BC).

ABDUA:19729

Grave goods. Left to right: flint flakes, a rounded rectangular piece of schist with parallel lines carved around the border and two holes, a small toggle made of bone, and seven cylindrical clay pin heads.

Grave goods found with the urn. Left to right:

Flint flakes, pendant amulet, bone toggle, clay pin heads.

ABDUA:14828, 14829, 14830, 14831

Cup. A small earthenware cup. The base is about half the size of the opening, and the body flares out dramatically at the middle producing a hexagonal profile. The sides are decorated with incised lines making a pattern of rough diamonds, alternately filled with diagonal lines going one way and another.

Small accessory cup, accompanied an urn burial, Carnousie, Turriff (2000-1400BC).

ABDUA:19743

Bone toggle. A small toggle made of bone. One end has broken off.

Bone toggle cremated with the deceased, found in the same burial.

ABDUA:14787

Mortsafe model. Three wooden poles arranged in a pyramid shape over a hole in the ground. Hanging over the hole is a coffin shaped slab of stone, suspended from the poles by a series of hooked metal bars and a winch.

Model of the Inverurie mortsafe. The original was placed over the graves of recent burials to prevent removal of the body for study during the early 19th century.

ABDAN:6004

Beaker. A small earthenware cup, with three incised horizontal lines below the rim and two rows of diamonds filled with vertical lines on the body.

Pottery vessel ('food vessel'), filled with intoxicating liquor and placed in a grave, Blackhills, Tyrie (1800-1200BC).

ABDUA:19694

Grave slab. A large rectangular block of grey stone, about two feet tall. Carved in relief is a Celtic cross and a pair of shears.

Grave slab bearing the symbol of the deceased's trade, Kildrummy (15th cent.)

ABDUA:14637

Pendant amulet. A small, flat rounded rectangular piece of beige stone with a circular hole drilled in one end.

Schist pendant, accompanied cremation, Drumdurno (2000-100BC).

ABDUA:14750

Urn. Large earthenware urn, about half a metre tall. The base is much smaller than the opening, giving it a rough conical shape. The body flares out and contracts again near the rim. The inner rim is decorated with punched dots, the outer rim and upper body is decorated with a sculpted wavy pattern with rows of incised diagonal lines in alternate directions.

Urn used to contain the buried ashes of the deceased, Leuchar Brae, Skene (2000-1400BC).

ABDUA:19732

Razor. A small bronze razor, roughly ellipse shaped with a handle and sharpened on both sides. Running up the centre is a raised area which is decorated with an engraved diamond pattern.

Bronze 'razor' from cremation, Tullochvenus, Tough (1800-1000BC).

ABDUA:19688

Regulations for the Mort house. A framed document titled Regulations for the management of the vault in the churchyard of Belhelvie. There is also a photograph of a low stone building next to a church in the frame, and the label Vault used to protect bodies from being removed by Resurrectionists.

Regulations for the Mort House, a vault to deter body-snatchers, Belhelvie (1832).

ABDUA:19260

Pipe. Small clay tobacco pipe, stained yellow and brown.

Tobacco pipe, used at a lykewake, Aberdeenshire (early 19th cent.)

ABDUA:18398

Coffin mount. A small, damaged sheet of dark grey rusty metal. The figure of a robed child holding a rod of some kind can be made out. The mount is on a piece of card labelled in handwriting Screw and part of the Mounting of a coffin found on the foundations of the Old Carmelite Monastery, Carmelite Street 1869.

Coffin mount, Carmelite graveyard, Carmelite Street, Aberdeen (18th cent.)

ABDUA:18390

Bead. A small pale blue star shaped bead with six points and a hole in the centre, made of a rough ceramic like material.

Faience bead, buried with a cremation, Camalynes, Auchterless (2000-100BC).

ABDUA:17691

Pin heads. Three small, roughly cylindrical objects made of orange ceramic with holes running through the centre.

Clay pin heads from a cremation burial, Howford, Strichen (1800-1000BC).

ABDUA:17742

Axe head. A heavy, polished and blunt sandstone axe head with a large circular hole running vertically through the centre.

'Battle axe' from cremation, Strichen (2000-1400BC).

ABDUA:17795

Shroud pins. Two long bronze pins with looped ends holding a ring.

Bronze 'shroud pins', Culblean, Dinnet (800-1000AD).

ABDUA:15549, 15550

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moss
1 Boggy ground, moorland la14- 
2 A peat bog. 

Many objects have been preserved through becoming lost or buried in peat bogs or water.

Paddle. The end of a wooden paddle, covered in numerous small cracks.

Wooden paddle from Loch Kinnord, Dinnet, Aberdeenshire. Date unknown, but there is evidence of the loch and surrounding area being settled since prehistoric times.

ABDUA:16817

Aurochs skull. The upper part of the skull of a cow like animal, with large horns extending horizontally from the sides of the cranium with a slight twist.

Aurochs skull (Bos primigenius), Moss of Cruden, Aberdeenshire.

ABDUA:63837

Antler. A bleached antler, with cracks and some pieces broken off.

Reindeer antler (Rangifer tarandus), Moss of Cruden, Aberdeenshire.

ABDUA:63838

M - Mortal to moss