A bunch of meadowsweet blossoms were discovered in a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot， south of Perth.
The find is reported in the journal British Archaeology, out this week.
Pollen found in eadier digs had been thought to have come from honey, or the alcoholic drink mead but the latest find may rule that theory out.
Dr. Kenneth Brophy, from the University of Glasgow, said "the flowers dont look very much, just about three or four millimetresacross. But these are the first proof that people in the Bronze Age were actually placing flowers in with burials."
The dark brown heads were found, along with a clump of organicmaterial which archaeologists now say is the stems of the flowers.
The bunch had been placed by the head of the high-statusindividual known to have been buried in the grave.
Diggers also found pieces from a birch bark coffin in the grave, and a bronze dagger with a gold hilt band.
"In burials were used to finding metalwork," said Dr. Brophy. "Butto find these very human touches is something very rare, if not unique."
The finds all come from a bronze age grave-or cist——excavatedby the Universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow.
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