Oh, she messed up big time! I had a very good time doing some digging (some of which probably replicates what you'd already done), and the entire cemetery is impossible.
After mounds of casual references to how very few Iron Age burial sites have been found in Scotland, I discovered a doctoral dissertation on late Iron Age burials there. I quote:
"Graves rarely intercut in flat grave cemeteries, so some level of management or above-ground grave marker must have been employed. Given the lack of evidence for these, an ephemeral monument like a low mound or surface marker can be posited in most cases; one long cist at Portmahomack was covered by a low mound capped with stone slabs (Carver 2008: 77), while a few graves at Whithorn were covered by a flat layer of white pebbles (P Hill 1997). Our familiar image of an upright stone at the head of every grave was certainly not the case the Late Iron Age."
His period's a little late, but there's even less evidence available from earlier. He goes on to talk about how people dispute whether some slabs with symbols might be grave markers, but there's nothing at all about vases. There's talk elsewhere of vessels being put IN graves in the Bronze Age and possibly Iron Age, but that's different.
Regarding showing priestesses on their own vessels... I don't really know, but it seems wrong. At this remove, the way we usually know it's a deity or saint being depicted is that they're shown with their attributes, so I'd expect to see Epona with her horses, in a very conventional pose.
I've Googled every late Victorian illustrator I can think of to see if that's really the source of the image, but no dice. Yet. This may become a personal grudge quest.
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Date: 2015-03-03 03:08 am (UTC)After mounds of casual references to how very few Iron Age burial sites have been found in Scotland, I discovered a doctoral dissertation on late Iron Age burials there. I quote:
"Graves rarely intercut in flat grave cemeteries, so some level of management or above-ground grave marker must have been employed. Given the lack of evidence for these, an ephemeral monument like a low mound or surface marker can be
posited in most cases; one long cist at Portmahomack was covered by a low mound capped with stone slabs (Carver 2008: 77), while a few graves at Whithorn were covered by a flat
layer of white pebbles (P Hill 1997). Our familiar image of an upright stone at the head of every grave was certainly not the case the Late Iron Age."
Source: http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2700/3/2011maldonadoramirezphd.pdf
His period's a little late, but there's even less evidence available from earlier. He goes on to talk about how people dispute whether some slabs with symbols might be grave markers, but there's nothing at all about vases. There's talk elsewhere of vessels being put IN graves in the Bronze Age and possibly Iron Age, but that's different.
Regarding showing priestesses on their own vessels... I don't really know, but it seems wrong. At this remove, the way we usually know it's a deity or saint being depicted is that they're shown with their attributes, so I'd expect to see Epona with her horses, in a very conventional pose.
I've Googled every late Victorian illustrator I can think of to see if that's really the source of the image, but no dice. Yet. This may become a personal grudge quest.