Burray Bone Lair
The Burray ( Orkney ) bone den was found in the 1990s in the "Bu Sands" on the 2,231 hectare Scottish island of Burray . Bu Sands is an area of solid sand dunes in a wide bay on the east coast of the island. The name Bu is used in the Viking Age context and usually designates a place of importance. Listed as Burray Bu, the farm is an early historic building that later belonged to a branch of the Stewart family. The hoard is located in the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall .
During a routine examination of the bones at the museum in 2006, two Pictorial carvings were discovered. One bone shows the figure of a bull, about 5 cm high . The other shows a standing figure 2.2 cm high of a man in a short tunic . He stands in front of a round motif.
The carvings are made with a sharp cutting tool such as a knife. Even with the representation of curves, they mainly consist of straight lines with several cuts. Arch cuts are relatively rare. A hexagonal motif with a central rectangle sits below the figure's elbow. Probably a round object, like a shield with a central square, is meant. The figure may represent a warrior and the serpentine line in front of the chest could represent the remainder of a weapon, a spear, an ax or a sword. The sturdy upper half of the face around the nose can belong to a helmet. Together with the decoration on the hem of the tunic, it is obvious that an important person is depicted.
The cattle bones are processed so that they can stand upright. That could mean that they were used as game pieces . However, because other bones were lost from the area, there is too little evidence to suggest the purpose of the carvings.
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Coordinates: 58 ° 51 '22 " N , 2 ° 53' 35" W.