Cairn by Embo
The Cairn of Embo is a late Neolithic cairn .
It is four kilometers north of Dornoch on the North Sea side of Scotland in County Sutherland in the Highlands , near the beach in the south of Embo . The oval hill over 50 m long and 30 m wide was built on a gravel dam above the coast. From there the coast could be overlooked as far as Tarbat Ness in the southeast and the Ord of Caithness (near Helmsdale ) in the north.
The 1960 excavation revealed a polygonal chamber of the Orkney-Cromarty type (OC) at each end of the hill. At the southern end, a short passage between two upright slabs leads into a rectangular antechamber arranged at an angle in the hill, and another pair of slabs marks the access to the oval chamber, which is made up of vertical slabs and horizontal panels, which represent the rest of a cantilever vault roof. The northern chamber was built in a similar way, but destroyed before the excavation.
The bones of at least six adults and nine children were found in the facility.
In the Bronze Age , long after the chambers were blocked, two stone boxes were built into the cairn. One in the south chamber and one about two meters to the north. The first contained the body of a woman wearing a pearl necklace and was accompanied by a pot known as a food container. The other box held a newborn baby and a baby about six months old, along with a food container and broken pieces of a drinking cup. Later, two bone deposits were cremated remains deposited in the hills, one with a bronze razor.
literature
- Anna Ritchie: Scotland BC. An introduction to the prehistoric houses, tombs, ceremonial monuments and fortifications in the care of the Secretary of State for Scotland . Scottish Development Dept., Edinburgh 1989, ISBN 0-11-493427-4 .
- Rosie R. Bishop, Mike J. Church, Peter A. Rowley-Conwy: Cereals, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Neolithic In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland Vol. 139, 2009, Tab. 1 + 3 [1]
- Robert Gourlay: Sutherland - a historical guide , Birlinn, Edinburgh, 1996 ISBN 1-874744-44-0 p. 29
Web links
- Description Engl. + Pictures
- Entry on Cairn by Embo in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database
Coordinates: 57 ° 53 ′ 45.2 " N , 4 ° 0 ′ 38.8" W.