Isbister Cairn

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Isbister Cairn
In the chamber of the Tomb of the Eagles
Chamber of the Tomb of the Eagles
Entrance to the facility

The Isbister Cairn (also known as the Tomb of the Eagle) is a megalithic complex on South Ronaldsay , an Orkney island that belongs to Scotland . Isbister Cairn was discovered by the farmer Ronald Simison (born 1922) in 1958 and excavated in 1976. In 2008 Simison received the "MBE award" .

The discovery

Simison came across the top of a wall on a grassy hill near the cliff. While digging, he found three axes , a polished club head, a flat oval piece of limestone shaped like a knife , and a round button. The excavation of the cairn showed that this valuable little deposit had been situated on the plinth at the base of the outer wall.

The excavation

Despite the interest the discovery had aroused among archaeologists, years passed without a professional excavation of the site due to lack of funds. In the 1970s, Ronald Simison undertook the excavation himself after observing the professional excavation of Liddle Burnt Mound , an ancient cooking place on his land, by John W. Hedges.

The attachment

Like the Unstan Cairn , Isbister is architecturally a hybrid. The facilities represent a type of transition between the older Stalled Cairns of the Orkney Cromarty type (OC) and the younger Passage Tombs of the Maes Howe type (MH). The chamber is divided into five compartments by upright columns (instead of the usual plates) and additionally has two (instead of one) end chambers and three secondary chambers accessible from the main chamber, which, like the lateral access , are of the Maes-Howe type. As with the Unstan Cairn, the end chambers are separated from the central area by threshold stones. The two side cells on the west side of the chamber were intact and about 90 cm high. The main chamber was originally covered by a cantilever vault and an oval cairn . The main chamber had been filled with earth and stones when the tomb was abandoned while the cells were unfilled.

Finds inside

The two intact cells contained mostly human skulls. There were a lot of human bones on the floor, especially along the walls of the main chamber. They looked like they had been dumped in small piles, each with a skull. The analysis showed, however, that the piles consisted of parts from several individuals. In total it was the remains of about 338 people. Bones were also found in the backfilling of the chamber. You were among at least eleven people. Along with the bones, the claws of at least eight sea ​​eagles and several other birds have been found. However, this is not an isolated case, as dog skulls, animal bones or fish bones have been found in other facilities. The eagle had a symbolic meaning on the islands until the Pictish times. It can be found carved in stone on the Brough of Birsay and on the Brochruine Knowe of Burrian (Netherbrough) .

Examination of the skulls revealed that some, mostly female, had significantly increased attachment of the neck muscles to the back of the skull. The findings were interpreted to mean that the individuals carried loads on their backs, supported by a strap over their heads. When comparing the skulls with other skulls from the British Neolithic and Bronze Age, Elizabeth J. Glenn found that women had significantly smaller heads than men. According to Chesterman, each occipital articular head usually has one facet, and the appearance of two facets on one or both sides is very unusual. In a study of 585 skulls from different countries and epochs, only five (less than 1%) had this anomaly. In contrast, Isbister's 30 occipital condyles showed two facets and one skull even showed a triple facet. This rare anatomical configuration is found in more than a third of Isbister's skulls.

The museum

The 90-year-old farmer Ronald Simison runs a small museum with his daughter at the farm, where he shows finds from the Isbister Cairn and accompanies visitors to Liddle and Isbister. At the cairn he has installed a cable-drawn trolley on which the visitor can lie down through the narrow entrance into the chamber.

See also

literature

  • Anna Ritchie: Orkney and Shetland (= Exploring Scotland's Heritage. ). Published for Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland by HMSO, Edinburgh 1985, ISBN 0-11-492458-9 .

Web links

Coordinates: 58 ° 44 ′ 41.5 ″  N , 2 ° 55 ′ 0 ″  W.