Holm of Papa

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Holm of Papa
Holm of Papa
Holm of Papa
Waters North Sea
Archipelago Orkney Islands
Geographical location 59 ° 21 '5 "  N , 2 ° 52' 1"  W Coordinates: 59 ° 21 '5 "  N , 2 ° 52' 1"  W
Location of Holm of Papa
length 1 km
width 150 m
Highest elevation 15  m
Residents uninhabited

The small, uninhabited island of Holm of Papa (also called Holm of Papay) on the Scottish Orkney can be visited (only with a guide) from the East Pier on the neighboring island of Papa Westray , from which it is a few hundred meters east.

Dis o'the Holm

In the Dis o'the Holm

The sight of the only 1000 m × 150 m small island is the megalithic complex "Dis o'the Holm" (the southern Cairn), an approximately 38 m long and 19 m wide cairn of a passage tomb . As with Isbister and Unstan , it is a chimera, similar to both the Orkney Cromarty type (OC) and the Maeshowe type (MH) with the unusual length of aisle and chamber (20.4 m) and the number of Head niches at both ends and 10 side chambers (two as double chambers - i.e. 14) and the central, lateral access. One end of the chamber is separated by a transverse wall, behind which the 3 south-western chambers are located.

The hill is also high due to the great height of the chamber (2.7 m), but by far not as high as at the Maeshowe . The roof has been restored with concrete and glass blocks. Modern access is not through the 9.1 m long, low, southeast-facing corridor (unlike Maeshowe), but from above. The walls of the chamber protrude and the upper end formed by lintels is 0.8 m wide. The muddy ground is covered in places with plastic sheeting. When the facility was excavated in 1849, no artifacts were found.

On eleven stones there are rock carvings (eye representations, circles, points and zigzag patterns ).

North Cairn

The Nordcairn

The North Cairn is a Stalled Cairn of the Orkney-Cromarty type. The chamber has four boxes facing each other, an unusually narrow end chamber and a relatively long axial access. The rectangular hill is built in two stages and the end chamber is surrounded by the remains of an older Rundkairn. A skull lay in front of the appendix access and the bones of a child were found in the filling layer of the access.

Recent excavations have found the bones of at least eight people and a pile of broken pieces of simple pottery, animal bones and fish bones. On the outside, shards of cups of the grooved and bell cupware were found. The entire structure was filled with stones and earth, as well as shells and fishbones, before it was abandoned.

Both systems date from roughly the transition from the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC. Chr.

literature

  • Charles Tait: The Orkney Guide Book. Edition 2.1. C. Tait, Kelton - St. Ola - Orkney 1999, ISBN 0-9517859-0-7 .

Web links

Commons : Holm of Papa  - collection of images