Neolithic Migration to Orkney

 

 The Orkney Riddle

The Neolithic Migration to Orkney 

There are a large number of reports, large and small, that have been written following excavation of Neolithic sites on Orkney.  

These reports include plans, sections, find reports, bone reports, dating reports, and any other data investigations that are relevant to the site.  At the end of the report, the findings are discussed, and sone tentative conclusions are drawn. 

In discussing the conclusions that could reasonably be drawn from the data supplied by the work of excavation, many odd features are, very sensibly left in a kind of limbo. Better to conclude nothing than to assert something that no qualifying evidence supports.

Across the mass of evidence derived from the excavations of Neolithic Orkney there are enough of these archaeological peculiarities, that if collected together, they form a pattern.

The pattern does not prove the concept, but it does shift the discussion in different ways.

The following is an outline to demonstrate how the occupation of Orkney by Neolithic migrants may have developed over time.

Nomads

The Neolithic people of Britain were a nomadic group of cultures that entered the country from the Dutch region of northern Europe from before 7000 years ago until after 6000 years ago.

They came on foot, across a land bridge that is now shallow water between Holland and East Anglia, in England. 

These people brought with them a suite of technologies,  including pottery, domesticated animals, landscape structures, economic systems, community activities, timber joinery, structural engineering, and small-scale industries.

They had boats, but these were limited to dugout canoes for use on inland waters, lakes, harbours, and perhaps for crossing rivers.

These were people who had arrived in Northern Europe from the south, gathering in the Scheldt valley. As a group of various peoples we call these the Swifterbant Culture, and it was much later that the various groups included here, having established mobile populations across Britain, arrived in Orkney. 

To Orkney 

The earliest arrivals in Orkney were in 3500BC, and these people built cairns that are believed to have been designed for the housing of the prehistoric people who had died. Their human habitations for the living were mostly light timber structures that may have looked like teepees or bivouacs. With rare exceptions these structures were not designed to endure an Orkney winter. If the winter wind did not dismantle them the ground around them would have rapidly turned to mush from repeated footsteps in Orcadian heavy rainfall.

In spite of their construction of cairns, these people retained their nomadic lifestyle, at least here in Orkney. They would cross from Caithness to South Ronaldsay along a strand made up of geologically soft  ground linking those locations. 

They crossed from Scotland to Orkney every summer, returning to the south when the weather turned. As they crossed, from year to year, the people would have noted that the strand of land linking the two regions was narrowing. Sea levels were rising and coastal beaches were being eroded by strong tides.

At the very end of the 4th millennium BC, before 3000BC, when sea-level wasn't yet high enough to cause concern, the summer solstice, and the Orkney Simmerdim, became an annual event, drawing hundreds of people to settle in temporary campsites around the Harray Loch. 

While they were temporary residents, camping in Orkney, these huge groups built some of the monuments of the Orkney World Heritage Site. These include the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn, the Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, and a couple of other henges in the area.

As seasons progressed, and people returned to Orkney, to continue this great work, the level of the sea rose, and whittled away at the strand that joined Caithness to Orkney. 

Castaways 

At a critical point in the erosion of the strand between Caithness and Orkney, most people would have read the signs, and realised that Orkney would no longer be a viable meeting place for their summer retreat. Either they would, in future, not be able to cross between the two places, or if they did they might not be able to return to Scotland. 

The greater number of people did not return to Orkney. Their campsite was abandoned just after 3000BC, and the stone circles that they were building remained, incomplete. 

The very few people that remained in Orkney formed into small co-habiting communities, and built solid structures of stone and timber, with covered drains, and great windbreaks, or covered interconnecting passages. 

The buildings that these people constructed were among the most complex and revolutionary structures built in Britain at the time, but their longevity was distinctly limited by the deterioration of the roofing timbers.

These communities were based at Skara Brae,  and the Ness of Brodgar.

Mariners

In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC boats were being developed , and mariners were setting out, from Britain and Europe, to explore offshore islands, like Orkney. 

The mariners arrived at several coastal locations in Orkney, where they set up camp in the ruins of the dwellings that had housed the earlier inhabitants of Orkney.

In some places they appear to have visited the islands briefly, pulled their boats onto land, and hunted the wild aurochs and other beasts roaming the landscape. In other places more permant settlements may have been established. 

When the mariners in their boats arrived in Orkney in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC it is possible that they met face-to-face with some of the surviving ancestors of the Neolithic Orcadian Founding Population.

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 Map of Orkney,  showing Neolithic sites

Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

The Orkney Riddle (index here) is a series of blogs promoting the notion that Neolithic people walked from Scotland to Orkney to build the Ring of Brodgar. 

#Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory #British #SkaraBrae #NessofBrodgar #BIIS ##Britice-Chrono 

In Conclusion

 

The Orkney Riddle 

Conclusion

The Theory here, begins with people in Early Neolithic times being able to walk from Caithness to Orkney until 3000BC., it continues by suggesting that a land bridge that joined Caithness to Orkney was washed away at that date. 

The evidence that I hope I have demonstrated to support the theory is as follows:-

The population of Orkney drops after 3000BC. 

Barnhouse and many small settlements are abandoned in 3000BC. 

The Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar are abandoned, unfinished, probably at that date. 

The Westray islands are (mostly) abandoned at 3000BC, and not colonised again until the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. 

Skara Brae, and the Ness of Brodgar, both have dated deposits from before 3000BC indicating some kind of occupation, but not till after 3000BC are the revolutionary solid structures with stone lined drains and other necessary amenities designed and constructed. 

The dates of the human bones found in the cairns are largely assessed to before 3000BC, and the dates of the animal bones, which were arguably being eaten by people, are largely after 3000BC, when a few groups of people isolated from mainland Britain, may have sought desperate refuge. 

It is possible that the people of the early Neolithic in Northwestern Europe were wholly nomadic, leaving only footprints before 3000BC. 

As sea levels rose it also likely that Atlantic tides broke through land bridges between Ireland and Britain, and between Britain and Europe. 

It was only after 3000BC that the first features of Stonehenge were installed, and not until the second half of the 3rd millennium BC that seagoing vessels were developed. 

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All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.

Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

The Orkney Riddle is a series of blogs promoting the notion that Neolithic people walked from Scotland to Orkney to build the Ring of Brodgar. 

#Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory #British #SkaraBrae #NessofBrodgar #BIIS ##Britice-Chrono 

The Swifterbant Culture

 

The Orkney Riddle

The Swifterbant Culture 

The Swifterbant Culture represents the tribes that occupied northern Europe,  and are likely to have interacted with Britain in the 5th millennium BC. 

 

From:-

"New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small‑scale husbandry inAtlantic NW Europe" by Philippe Crombé, et al

"The coastal lowlands of Northwest Europe are situated at the periphery of the extensive loess belt of Centraland West Europe, which was colonized in the course of the 6th millennium cal BC by migrating farmers from the Near East and Anatolia. The transition from (Mesolithic) hunter-gatherers to (Neolithic) farmers-herders in this coastal lowland area  has been debated by numerous scholars over the past decades. The debate centers around two opposing models. The frst advocates a long-term and gradual transition towards farming and herding starting early in the 5th millennium cal BC, a process in which local hunter-gatherers played asignifcant role (acculturation/cultural difusion model). The second model, on the other hand, considers a rapid introduction of domesticates near the end of the 5th millennium cal BC, more precisely around ca. 4300 cal BC in the Netherlands and ca. 4100/4000 cal BC in theUK, northernGermany and southern Scandinavia. According to some, the speed of transition suggests demic difusion of pioneering farmers from Central Europeinto the lowlands of NWEurope, as recently supported by genetic evidence, although not all scholars agree on this."

"The Neolithization process of the Lower Scheldt basin. 

The presence of domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry from ca. 4800–4600 cal BC onwards, implies that farmer/hunter-gatherer interaction along the NW border of the agro-pastoral frontier was much more intense and drastic than previously thought, and may have involved more than mere exchange of “exotic” goods.

Indeed, local stock breeding demands a transmission of knowledge e.g. through training by skilled specialists which implies direct and prolonged involvement of farmers/herders from the loess areas. This is corroborated by the material culture, which also underwent drastic changes at precisely the same moment. Between 4800 and 4600 cal BC new knapping techniques appeared within the local “Mesolithic” lithic traditions, focusing on the production of thick fakes and new tool types, such as splintered and facetted tools. This was accompanied by new activities, as indicated by new types of micro- and macroscopic use wear traces on lithic tools, e.g. crushing and grinding of animal bone. The start of local pottery production by hunter-gatherers of the Scheldt river valley (Swiferbant Culture), using local clays, must have started during this same period. These new technologies present clear affities with post-LBK cultures, in particular with the Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain Culture (ca. 5000/4950 – 4750/4650 cal BC) and later the Rössen Culture (ca. 4700 – 4450 cal BC). 

As such, these changes point to increased infuence of farmer-herders from the loess area. The transfer of technological know-how must have required close and long-term interactions between the farmer-herders and hunter-gatherer population groups, which might have involved the migration of specialists or even inter marriage. This is certainly the case for the pottery production, which represents an entirely new technology in hunter-gatherer context, that required new knowledge of raw materials and the development of new motor habits, i.e. motions and body postures that were previously not used for other activities. The same holds for keeping local livestock consisting of diferent species.At first glance, all this seems in contradiction with genetic evidence from the Central European loess area mainly from central and southern Germany, which points to limited (< 10%, max. 17%) interaction and admixture between both populations before ca. 4000 cal BC, and thus genetic continuity over a period of ca.1500 years. 

However, the first recently published genetic evidence from northern France, demonstrates much more hunter-gatherer ancestry in early farmer’s genes in western Europe compared to central and SE Europe,which fits the conclusions of the present study. Interestingly, the predominance of cattle over sheep/goat within the assemblage of Bazel perfectly mirrors the livestock within the different succeeding agro-pastoral Cultures of the loess region, characterized by a cattle-based economy in which sheep/goat only played a minor role (ca.6/10% to 20%). This cattle-based economy has been linked to increased milk consumption based on the recurrent detection of dairy residues associated with early Neolithic pottery, traces of which have recently also been detected in some Swiferbant Culture potsherds from Bazel (research in progress).

Conclusions. The present study irrefutably proofs the presence of domesticated sheep/goat and most likely also cattle from ca.4800/4600 cal BC along the NW margins of the agro-pastoral frontier, and hence supports the model viewing the neolithization of NW Europa as a long-term process. In addition the isotope data, although not yet fully conclusive, seems to be in favor of small-scale husbandry from the very beginning. If this is confrmed by future, more in-depth isotope analyses, it demonstrates that farmer-herders had a considerable impact on hunter-gatherer’s subsistence as early as the frst half of the 5th millennium cal BC. Clearly before 4800/4600 cal BC contact and interaction with farmer-herders from the LBK was limited to the exchange of “exotic” commodities, such as decorated pottery. This changed markedly with the development of the subsequent Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint Germain and Rössen Cultures. Contact intensifed resulting in a transfer of knowledge on pottery production,the production of new stone tools (with new functions) and likely also herding. In this sense the frst half of the 5th millennium cal BC was a turning point for hunter-gatherers living in the lowlands along the margins of the agro-pastoral frontier, corresponding to the “substitution phase” or “Introduction phase”. It was the start of a totally new lifeway which probably would culminate into a fully agrarian society in the course of the second half of the 5th millennium cal BC, around 4000 cal BC at the latest. The latter might have been triggered by the tidal fooding events in the Lower Scheldt valley which certainly will have reduced the availability of edible plants and wild game considerably. On the other hand flooding might have offered better conditions for local agriculture, through the deposition of more fertile tidal mud, including clay and silt, in an overall sandy environment."

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Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

The Orkney Riddle (index here) is a series of blogs promoting the notion that Neolithic people walked from Scotland to Orkney to build the Ring of Brodgar. 

#Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory #British #SkaraBrae #NessofBrodgar #BIIS ##Britice-Chrono 

Aurochs

 

The Orkney Riddle

Aurochs 

The following commentary is from:- "Excavation of a Neolithic farmstead at Knap of Howar, Papa Westray, Orkney" by Anna Ritchie

And is in :-

"APPENDIX 4: ANIMAL BONE FROM KNAP OF HOWAR, B A NODDLE, Department of Anatomy, University College, Cardiff"

There, the author discusses the dimensions and probable sizes of cattle bones found on the site, suggesting that they are close to aurochs in size.

"As Watson stated in his Skara Brae report, the cattle are indeed large. The measurements set outin fig 20 are considerably larger than the writer has encountered at other periods, being roughly similar toa collection of Friesian beef cattle in her collection (these were not fully grown animals). Fig 20 also contains an estimate of body weight reduced from various measurements on the astragalus which originallyderived from these same Friesian cattle in part (Noddle 1973). The lightest of these animals overlap theheaviest weights found for later animals (Saxon, from Norfolk; Noddle 1975). Fig 21 comprises a comparison of the width of the first phalanx compared with two groups of English Neolithic cattle from Durrington Walls (Harcourt in Wainwright & Longworth1971,265-76) and Windmill Hill (Grigson in Smith1965,141-67) and with a collection of Danish Maglemosian aurochs taken from Grigson (1969). The Knap of Howar specimens are rather larger than both these English examples and overlap the lighter aurochs. Furthermore, they form a continuous series, whereas both English sites include a few discrete larger specimens which were designated wild aurochs by their authors. The Knap of Howar specimens are comparable with certain continental examples discussed by Grigson (1969) and believed by her and the continental authors to be recently domesticated aurochs. This explanation would seem to apply to Knap of Howar material."

The following chart extracts dates of death of cattle/aurochs in Orkney for the Neolithic period. The sources for this work are:-

To cut a long story short: formal chronological modelling for the Late Neolithic site of Ness of Brodgar, Orkney by Nick Card et al

Beside the Ocean of Time: a chronology of Neolithic burial monuments and houses in Orkney, by Seren Griffiths 

The limits of the dates of death of each beast are given by the sources as better than 95% accurate, and this leads to some lengthy periods of time in which an animal may have died. Over-lengthy periods of death possibility have been removed from the chart.

The sites covered include the Knap of Howar, the Ness of Brodgar, and many Orkney cairns. 

All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.

Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

The Orkney Riddle (index here) is a series of blogs promoting the notion that Neolithic people walked from Scotland to Orkney to build the Ring of Brodgar. 

#Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory #British #SkaraBrae #NessofBrodgar #BIIS ##Britice-Chrono 

Maeshowe, a Wonder of the Neolithic World

 

The Orkney Riddle

 Maeshowe Chambered Cairn 

A Wonder of the Neolithic World 

Map shows approximate locations of the Ring of Brodgar,  the Stones of Stenness,  and Maeshowe Chambered Cairn. 

Orkney has many grand cairns but the grandest of them all is the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn. This is one of the monuments that make up the Orkney World Heritage Site.

It is a great mound encircled within a ditch, and at its’ heart is a rectangular room with tall standing stones at each internal corner. The walls of the room are built up using the thin layered stones that abound on Orkney, and the engineering of the structure is something for which it is justly famous.

Maeshowe was investigated by James Farrer, with the assistance of George Petrie.

James Farrer (1812 to 1879) was a Conservative Party politician in England who was elected three times as the Member of Parliament for South Durham, between 1847 and 1865.

He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and his excavations included partial excavation of Orkney Brochs from 1853; Maeshowe in 1861; and the first excavation of Chedworth Roman Villa, from 1864 to 1866.

George Petrie (1818-1875) was a leading Orcadian antiquarian who excavated numerous archaeological sites in the mid 19th century, on some occasions with James Farrer. He worked as the Factor of the Graemeshall Estate and Sheriff Clerk of Kirkwall. Orkney sites he worked on included Maeshowe Neolithic tomb, Skara Brae, numerous Iron Age brochs (e.g. Lingro, Shapinsay, Burray), Bronze Age barrows, cists, and Viking graves.

Petrie’s notebooks contain numerous sketches of artefacts and measured site plans, including many details omitted from published accounts.

An abridged version of Farrer’s personal account of his work at Maeshowe follows.

“As several gentlemen of well-known antiquarian reputation from Edinburgh and Aberdeen were expected, and as I was desirous of having the benefit of their experience and advice, I determined at once to commence operations on the great tumulus of Maeshowe, the subject of this notice. My attention had been particularly called to this tumulus by Mr. Balfour, whose decided opinion that a careful examination might result in some important discovery, afforded me great encouragement, as I well knew that he had for many years taken considerable interest in Orkney antiquities, and his opinion that Maeshowe was a sepulchral chamber, appeared to be confirmed by local traditions.” (“The country people state that the building was formerly inhabited by a person named Hogboy, possessing great strength. Haugbuie, in Norse, signifies “the ghost of the tomb;” and Haugr, “tumulus.””)

Fig 23 Maeshowe Chambered Cairn

Fig 24 inside Maeshowe Chambered Cairn

“On the afternoon of Saturday the 6th of July (1861), therefore, guided by the experience of Mr. George Petrie, and assisted by the professional knowledge of Mr. Wilson, road contractor, ground was broken on the west side of Maes-howe, and on the same evening, Mr. John Stuart and Mr. Joseph Robertson of Edinburgh, with Colonel Forbes Leslie of Rothie, and Mr. James Hay Chalmers of Aberdeen, arrived by the Prince Consort steamship. As it was anticipated that a couple of days would suffice to make a large opening in the tumulus, arrangements were made for meeting there on the 10th of July. “

“On Monday the 8th of July, a number of men under the superintendence of Alexander Johnson, Mr. Wilson’s foreman—a most active and intelligent fellow—proceeded with the work that had been commenced on the previous Saturday, and before evening discovered a passage on the west side, which afterwards proved to be the entrance into the interior of the tumulus. This passage was covered over with large flag-stones, one of which having been with some difficulty upraised, we effected an entrance, but found a considerable accumulation of earth and stones, which was removed on the following day, and Mr. Wilson, after careful examination, in which his engineering experience was of the highest importance, agreed to my suggestion that the excavation should be proceeded with from the centre of the hillock.”

Fig 25 Maeshowe Chambered Cairn, plan and sections

“I am chiefly indebted to my friend Mr. George Petrie for the following measurements, which I believe will be found to be substantially correct:—”

“The tumulus is about 92 feet in diameter, 36 feet high, and about 300 feet in circumference at the base. It is surrounded by a trench 40 feet wide, and varying in depth from 4 to 8 feet. It has undoubtedly been entered at some remote period, probably by the Northmen, who, as is well known, were not deterred by feelings either of religion or superstition, from opening and ransacking any place likely to repay them for their trouble. Whether they were the first to break into the building, or whether they found it in a state of comparative ruin, the natural result of great antiquity, can now only be matter of conjecture. It is obvious that little respect has been paid to the dead, since the stones used for closing up the cells, in which it is supposed they were deposited, were found torn out and buried in the mass of ruins filling up the interior of the chamber to which these cells are attached.”

“The passage leading to the central chamber is 2 feet 4 inches wide at its mouth, and appears to have been the same in height, but the covering stones had been removed, or had fallen in for about 22½ feet. The passage then increases in dimensions to 3¼ feet in width, and 4 feet 4 inches in height, and continues for 26 feet, when it is again narrowed by two upright stone slabs to 2 feet 5 inches. These slabs are each 2 feet 4 inches broad, and immediately beyond them the passage extends 2 feet 10 inches, and then opens into the central chamber. Its dimensions from the slabs to its opening into the chamber are 3 feet 4 inches wide, and 4 feet 8 inches high. At the commencement of the passage there is a triangular recess in the wall about 2 feet deep, and 3½ in height and width, in front and opposite to it in the passage, a stone of corresponding shape and dimensions, suggesting the idea that it might have been used to close the passage, and that it was pushed back into the recess in the wall when admission into the chamber was desired. From this recess to the chamber, the sides of the passage, the floor and roof, are formed by four immense slabs of flagstone; three of these stones are broken, and the fourth slightly cracked.”

“After a few days’ labour the whole of the rubbish filling the chamber was removed, but long ere this was accomplished, the keen eye of Mr. Joseph Robertson discovered the first of the Runic inscriptions. They were high up on the walls of the building, smaller and less distinctly drawn than many that were afterwards discovered, but the important fact of the existence of Runic inscriptions in Orkney, where none had hitherto been found, was at once established.”

“The chamber when cleared out proved to be about 15 feet square on the level of the floor, and 13 feet in height, to the top of the present walls. Immediately opposite to the passage is an opening in the wall 3 feet from the floor. This is the entrance to a cell or small chamber in the wall, On the two opposite walls of the chamber are similar openings in the walls. The roofs, floors, and back walls of the cells are each formed by a single slab of stone, and stones corresponding in size and shape to the openings in the walls were found on the floor in front of them. The natural inference is that they were originally the seals of the chambers in which the honoured dead reposed.”

“Large quantities of earth had been piled up over the building when completed. In each angle of the central chamber stands a large buttress, doubtless intended to strengthen the walls, and support them under the pressure of their own weight, and that of the mass of earth with which the whole was covered. The walls of the chamber are built with large stones, which generally extend the whole length of the wall. No lime or mortar of any kind has been used.”

“It is proposed now to inquire into the origin of Maeshowe, at what time, and for what purpose it was constructed, and who were the people whose names and writings are found engraved on its walls. I am indebted to the learned Professors who have furnished me with their translation of the inscriptions, for the information which is embodied in the following pages.”

“....... Professor Rafn believes that it was a sorcery hall for Lodbrok, a female magician, Professor Munch, that it was the burial-place of a woman of the same name, while Professor Stephens, who expresses no opinion as to the time when the building was raised, considers the writings which speak of Lodbrok’s sons, as indicative of its having been used in early times by the celebrated Scandinavian Vikings of that name, as a fortress and place of retreat. The low and narrow cells, as well as the low passage leading to the interior, fully justify the opinion that it was undoubtedly at one time a place of burial..... .” (Gutenberg)

On various stones of the chamber, mainly near the entrances to the cells, but also running along the narrow edges of some corbel-stones, are 24 runic inscriptions, and some miscellaneous markings.

There are also, on one of the buttress-stones, small engravings, of a dragon, of a walrus and of a serpent knot.

Parties of Vikings entered the chamber through the roof on several occasions in the twelfth century, leaving this graffiti. Three of the comments refer to treasure:-

‘It is true what I say, that treasure was carried off before those Crusaders broke into the howe’;

‘Away to the NW is a great treasure hidden. A long time ago was a great treasure hidden here.’

‘Lucky will be he who can find the great fortune. Hakon single-handed bore treasure from this howe.’

The Orkneyinga Saga mentions that Maeshowe was entered on more than one occasion by Norsemen at this time.

The mound was known to them as Orkhaugr.

During the struggle between the rival earls Erlend and Harald for control of the earldom, Harald and some of his men sought shelter in Maeshowe from a snowstorm, but it was such a terrible experience that two of them went mad, “which slowed them down badly” says the saga, though they still reached their destination by nightfall.

The following winter of 1153-4, crusaders, who had gathered together ready for a trip to the Holy Land broke into the chamber and incised some of the runic inscriptions.” (Canmore)

In spite of the story, no finding of treasure has been reported from the excavation.

Neither were any interments found with the exception of a single fragment of human cranium.

The monuments greatest claim to fame seems to be the observation that the long entrance passage has been designed such that it is aligned with the setting sun on the day of the Winter Solstice. As the sun sets, its rays are said to radiate down the passage Illuminating the back wall of the great chamber. There remains great speculation regarding this belief, and much scholarly dispute is devoted to the discussion of sunsets and horizons on the Orkney landscape.

Maeshowe Chambered Cairn as described by the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Scotland :-

“More than any other prehistoric monument, the design and execution of Maeshowe epitomises the skill of Neolithic masons in Orkney, and the tomb is rightly considered to be one of the supreme achievements of prehistoric Europe. It is inevitable that such a huge mound should have been robbed long ago, and when it was opened in 1861 by James Farrer it was indeed empty of its original contents, apart from a fragment of human skull.

Its location, close to the great ceremonial complex of the Brodgar-Stenness circles, is presumably no accident.

The mound was built on a levelled circular platform, encircled by a low bank composed of earth scraped up from a shallow ditch on its inner side; the mound itself, 25m in diameter and 7m high, consists largely of clay and stones, but there is an inner core of stones casing and supporting the chamber. The outermost part of the entrance passage has been restored, but from the door checks inwards it is original. The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance. In keeping with the proportions of the tomb, the passage is quite spacious, although at a height of 1.4m it is not possible to walk upright.

The main chamber is about 4.5m square and was originally about the same height, with three side cells entered above ground-level; in each corner there is a buttress designed to help in supporting the weight of the corbelled roof. The masonry is superb, the slabs finely adjusted by underpinning or dressing to create a smooth face even where they are in fact oversailing one another towards the roof, and the tapering orthostats facing one side of each buttress not only create an impression of soaring vertical space but attractively interrupt the horizontal lines of the walls.

When Farrer dug into Maeshowe, he found that the chamber had already been broken into, as he did, from the top; from Orkneyinga Saga and from the runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber, it is clear that it was entered on more than one occasion by Norsemen in the 12th century, to whom the mound was known as Orkhaugr. During the struggle between the rival earls Erlend and Harald for control of the earldom, Harald and some of his men sought shelter in Maeshowe from a snowstorm, but it was such a terrible experience that two of them went mad, ‘ which slowed them down badly’ says the saga, though they still reached their destination by nightfall. The following winter of 1153-4, crusaders gathered together ready for a trip to the Holy Land broke into the chamber and incised some of the runic inscriptions, and there were probably other occasions as well when runes were cut there. This is one of the largest extant collection of runic inscriptions carved in stone. There are about thirty inscriptions, including both ordinary runes and cryptographic twig runes, and there are also some beautifully executed carvings of a walrus, a serpent knot and a dragon or lion on the north-east buttress, all in typically vigorous Scandinavian style.” (RCAHMS Canmore)

The Maeshowe Chambered Cairn is such a glorious piece of work, and the interior, of such quality that I find it difficult to believe that the internal space was to be seen only by the light of flames. Seeing that the Vikings were able to enter the place through the roof suggests, to me, that there was some hint that this route was available to them, otherwise they might not have made the attempt.

The absence of any finds, except for a piece of cranium suggests, not that the contents were stolen, but that there was never any treasure in the cairn in the first place.

The entrance passage into Maeshowe, showing the blocking stone in its recess at the side wall.

The Royal Commission suggests that :“The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance.”, but as the butting face for the blocking stone is facing inwards, in my opinion it seems unlikely that an effective closure could be made from the outside. Strange though it may seem, it looks more likely that this closure would be better performed by people enclosed within the cairn.

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Index

All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.

Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

The Orkney Riddle (index here) is a series of blogs promoting the notion that Neolithic people walked from Scotland to Orkney to build the Ring of Brodgar. 

#Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory #British #SkaraBrae #NessofBrodgar #BIIS ##Britice-Chrono