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The Times, 17 July 1937
Sand-diggers in a pit at Knappers Farm, Kilbowie, near Glasgow, have disclosed a group of stones, the tops of which were about 2ft. under grass level. Mr. Ludovic Mann was asked to examine the site, and digging was stopped until that inspection was made. On freeing the stones from the fine sharp sand, it was found that they were fairly large though easily portable water-rolled stones. Eleven of them had been packed along the arc of a circle about 5ft. in diameter, forming a small cairn, of which, however, there were no traces on the surface of the field before the sand-digging operations began.
As the structure was in danger of collapse at the edge of a cutting some 20ft. deep, the stones were removed to a safer place and there reconstructed in their original relative positions. Embedded under the stones were found six others of the same type. The structure was found to cover a small circular pit about 5ft. in depth. The soil which filled this cup-shaped hollow was extracted and some carbonized wood was found in it, but the dry sandy soil has not permitted any bones to survive. A carefully made scraping tool of white and green quartz was found in the grave.
Similar sites have been found in the neighbourhood in recent years, and from the pottery and other relics found in them it is inferred that the present cairn dates back to an early phase of the Bronze Age, about 1,500 years before Christ.
Aberdeen Journal, 3 August 1937
More interesting finds of ancient days came to light at the sand pit at Knappers Farm, alongside the boulevard near Kilbowie, and Mr Ludovic-Mann, the Glasgow archaeologist, spent the week-end in investigating them. Many relics of the Bronze Age and the Roman occupation have been found in this quarter, and during the sand digging on Saturday there was disclosed what appears to be a shrine astronomically planned.
Dundee Courier, 17 August 1938
The 5000-year-old temple at Knappers, Dumbartonshire, Scotland’s “Stonehenge” in wood, is to be reconstructed at the New York world’s fair for inclusion in the clachan or Highland village exhibition.
Mr Ludovic Mann, the Glasgow archaeologist, directing excavations at Knappers, said yesterday—“It will be a full-scale reproduction, and Mr John Gentles and Mr Frank Chisholm, the two young Scottish archæologists who have assisted in the excavations, will help in the reconstruction.
“Flint instruments, ancient pottery, and other finds made at Knappers will be displayed in a museum beside the temple. I have been asked to give a series of lectures on ancient Scottish culture.”
The Times, 19 September 1938
Since preliminary details of the excavations at the prehistoric temple discovered on the Boulevard at Clydebank, Dumbartonshire, were published in The Times on September 15 last year, considerable progress has been made by the excavating committee. The temple is associated with a large number of inhumed and cremated burials, both of the Stone Age and the succeeding Bronze Age; and live types of pottery and many hundreds of implements of flint and other stone and various other relics have been discovered.
Spades only were used for removing the modern surface soil, and the prehistoric surface has been examined by scraping it off in thin layers with knives. The under-surface features remain intact. The fine stoneless sand has never permitted the growth of large trees, the roots of which would have destroyed the post holes and their timber contents.
It is estimated that the circular area of the temple has a diameter of 600ft., and it is thought that it may have contained several hundreds of burials. Judging from the sepulchral pottery, the graves distributed near the centre are of the Stone Age, while in the outer groups of burials the pottery belongs to the various phases of the Bronze Age and the transitional period between.
At a distance of 219¼ft. from the main centre, the remains of a circular stone walling, 43ft. in diameter, were discovered a few days ago. This is now in course of being uncovered. Owing to the accumulation of humus, all the surviving stonework of this small circle is under plough level, and has been well protected throughout the centuries from farming operations and the weather.
In the walling to the north-west was disclosed a large rectangular stone, and in contact with its outer edge was found a fallen pillar-stone which seems to have formed part of an altar-like structure. The pillar-stone has been artificially shaped, and when the encrusted sand on its surface was brushed away many curious serpentine devices painted in black and red pigments were revealed. This seems to be the first find in the British area of a prehistoric painted and dressed pillar. Associated with the stone ring, at a distance of 55ft. from its centre and on the same radius the horizontal slab and the painted pillar, has been disclosed another large fallen upright stone.
Some curious features characterize this great temple and burial ground. Many of the relics found are the only known examples of their kind, and exhibit unusual and exquisite technique. Some are apparently fetish objects and delineat heads of horned bovine animals cut out in the round in stone.
Some hundreds of socket-holes have been detected. These contain decayed and carbonized wood, and have been refitted with timber posts. They were found to outline the symmetrical figures of circular, elliptical, and serpentine effigies. Specimens of this wasted timber have been reconditioned with gum dammar and benzole solution and await microscopic examination for the identification of the wood, which seems to be largely oak. The wooden standards were all originally carefully prepared and shaped, and were not rough, undressed branches.
The temple was open to the heavens, and was largely built of earthworks of low elevation, covering an extensive area. Its various parts are all defined clearly on ground plan by the layout of the post-holes, which were set along the margins of the figures. The site has remained intact and undisturbed save for the wasting of the timber superstructure and the ploughing down of the earthern mounds, and ridges. Traces of a circle of 19 large equidistantly set monoliths have been detected at a radius of 129ft. from the main centre.
Mr. Ludovic Mann, who has been supervising the excavations, has been invited to produce a full-size replica of the major portion of the temple for exhibition at the forthcoming World’s Fair in New York.
The Times, 8 July 1939
Exploration at the Stone Age sanctuary between Glasgow and Clydebank, now popularly known in the district as the Druid Temple, began last week for the third successive season. The structures uncovered were described in The Times of September 15, 1937, and September 19, 1938.
During the recent solstitial week observations of the directions of the rows of timber and stone pillars, radiating from the centre of the stone-paved rings to the west of the main structure, were found to mark the lines of midsummer sunset and sunrise. These rings overlap like circular links in a chain and constitute an apparently unique feature in prehistoric monumental architecture. There was observed to be in each case a slight but constant difference between the ancient and present-day precessional alignments. The shift or offset has been to the east and amounts to 10¾in. at a radius of 50ft. from the observers’ station. This confirms the neolithic origin already determined by the presence of round-based clay pots found in the earlier tombs and beneath The floor of the temple.
The work of exploration is being supervised by Mr. Ludovic Mann, the Glasgow archaeologist, by whom (in conjunction with the exploration committee) an enlarged and well-illustrated guide to the temple buildings has been issued. The guide deals with new aspects of folklore, myths, and prehistoric religion, outlines the recently discovered method of reading “cup and ring” carvings, and describes numerous serpentine and other earthworks symmetrically placed round the core of the temple.