Dr Matthew Knight, senior curator of prehistory (Bronze Age Collections) at NMS and lead investigator on the SAHRC project, said: “The cist was found at a site called Rhubodach on the Isle of Bute, and it’s a cist that had been forgotten about.
“It had actually previously been excavated in the 1800s when a skull was recovered and sent to London.
“At the time, other remains were noted still in the ground but they were left.
“The skull, unfortunately, has now been lost, but rediscovery and re-excavation of these remains is allowing us to reinterpret and retell the story of this individual.
“Analysis of the remains found that there wasn’t just one individual in the grave, but actually two, and these two were buried with additional pottery and other grave goods.”
In the 19th century it was common practice for only the skull to be recovered. It is not known where it is now.
It is not known whether the two people were related or how many years passed between the burials.
Human remains from around 2,500 individuals from about 600 archaeological sites from across Scotland are stored at the new Granton site, dating from the Mesolithic period through to the 18th or 19th century.