Windwick basement

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Coordinates: 58 ° 45 ′ 51.8 "  N , 2 ° 56 ′ 9.7"  W.

Relief Map: Orkney
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Windwick basement​
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Orkney

The basement of Windwick on the Orkney island of South Ronaldsay in Scotland was discovered in the late 19th or early 20th century but was rebuilt for arable farming. The structure was rediscovered in 1936 when a plow broke the roof. The basements of Orkney are prehistoric structures from the late Bronze and early Iron Agefound around 40 times on Orkney. On the Orkney, they usually consist of a long, deep underground passage that leads to a round chamber. In the case of the basement, a basic distinction is made between "rock-cut", "earth-cut", "stone built" and "mixed" basements.

description

What were found were the remains of a tiled, 1.8 m deep and 9.6 m long, northeast-southwest oriented corridor made of dry stone , the ends of which ended in small cells with "boat-shaped" ends. The basement remained undisturbed until the excavation in 2005. In three years of archaeological work, Martin Carruthers then carried out the first excavation of an undisturbed earthhouse (as the facilities are called here) using modern methods.

At Windwick it became clear that the underground structure and the aboveground building connected to it were jointly planned and built during the Late Bronze or Early Iron Ages . The upper building had a southeast facing entrance and the lack of facilities, such as the lack of a fire pit, seemed to suggest that it was not a residential building in the usual sense. The clay used to cover the basement was in a contrasting color to that used for the floor of the above-ground structure. This clearly marked the outline of the underground structure.

The upper building creates a forced guidance of the user through the object due to internal stone setting. Everyone who wanted to go to the basement had to move clockwise in the upper building. This "movement with the sun" was preserved in much later Orkney traditions and symbolizes life and wellbeing in the island's superstitions. In the basement, however, visitors also move counter-clockwise. Thus there is a clear distinction between the role and the symbolism of the two structures.

Instead of a hearth, a number of temporary “fireplaces” were found in the upper house. There are also a number of pits in the ground which contained a glassy, ​​slag-like material and cremated human remains. The cremations contain traces of special pottery that may have been imported from the Shetland Islands especially for cremation . There were also debris in the roof area of ​​the basement, possibly containing corpse burn. According to Martin Carruther, this indicates ritualized behavior.

Corpse grinding

Broken grinding stones and their grinding stones were found in the basement . With their help, the corpse burn was apparently ground into fine particles before being dumped.

At the end of use, access to the basement was intentionally blocked. Part of the ritual was the placing of a rectangular pot in the material used to block the entrance.

One of the particularities (not only) found on Orkney is the reuse or reuse of Neolithic sites by the people of the Bronze and Iron Ages. At least two basements - Howe at Stromness and Rowiegar on Rousay - were built within abandoned Neolithic megalithic systems , which indicates continued veneration. Older monuments were usually taken over with piety. This subsequent use seems to have taken place in Windwick as well. A large door lintel from the basement has eight bowls ( English cups provided). However, they were covered by clay caps, so they were not visible, and may have been worked into the stone as early as the Neolithic.

Dating

There are many unresolved issues with basing basement dating in Scotland. Vere Gordon Childe and Alexander Ormiston Curle argued for a Bronze Age origin of some examples in the far north. Charles Thomas says that it is difficult to prove that the basements were in use in some regional groups before the late pre-Roman Iron Age.

use

It seems certain that basements were in some way connected to the cult of the dead. This association necessarily means that they were not used as storage. Instead, the chambers are to be seen as symbolic "underworlds". Those sources which called Rennibister an anomaly because it contained human bodies have been refuted. The basements, Martin Carruthers explained, have architectural features that also have a connection to the fountains found in some brochures (such as Minehowe ). This definitely shifts the focus towards ritual and religion. He believes the chambers were used for rites of passage.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Carruthers “The cremated materials were very small and very fine, which seems to indicate that they were using these querns to grind down the remains. This would explain the presence of the querns in the structure - they were specifically involved in rites surrounding the dead. Once used for this activity, however, the querns were deliberately broken - ritually killed perhaps? Were they seen as somehow polluted? Associated with, or touched by, the dead. "
  2. ^ V. Gordon Childe : The Prehistory of Scotland. Kegan Paul et al., London 1935, p. 212.
  3. ↑ Alexander Ormiston Curle : An Account of the Excavation, on behalf of HM Office of Works, of another prehistoric dwelling (No. V) at Jarlshof, Sumburgh, Shetland, in the Summer of 1934. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland . Volume 69, 1934/1935, ISSN  0081-1564 , pp. 85-107 ( archaeologydataservice.ac.uk PDF).
  4. ^ Charles Thomas: Souterrains in the Irish Sea province: a note. In: Charles Thomas (Ed.): The Iron Age in the Irish Sea province. Papers given at the Council for British Archeology Conference held at Cardiff, January 3 to 5, 1969 (= Council for British Archeology Research Report. 9, ISSN  0589-9036 ). Council for British Archeology, London 1972, pp. 75–78, here p. 76, ( archaeologydataservice.ac.uk PDF; 2.7 MB).