Beaker from Acharole, Caithness

This pot was found at Acharole, near Watten. It is of a type known as ‘beaker’ pottery. Beaker pots are very distinctive of the early Bronze Age in Britain, appearing in Caithness between 2500 and 1600 BC. They were used for a wide range of household purposes, such as food storage and cooking, but they are best known as grave goods within early Bronze Age burials. They are often found in cists, small stone burial chambers, along with other grave goods such as weapons, tools and jewellery to accompany the dead. Staining inside many of these pots suggest that they were put in the grave containing some kind of liquid. Beaker pottery is usually decorated with distinctive geometric patterns, often in hatches or chevrons running in bands. It has been suggested that this decoration may mimic woven basketry or textile containers that would also have been widely used.