Significant Neolithic tomb found in a Scottish garden

Posted on 20 October 2010 by Aine MacDermot

Archeologists believe the tomb Mr Hamish Mowatt discovered under a boulder in the garden of a bistro in South Ronaldsay (Orkney, Scotland) could lead to new insights into Orkney’s earliest inhabitants. But they face a race against time as water washing in and out of the uncovered tomb could dissolve any pottery and human remains inside.

“There is a big slab of stone about eight foot by eight foot and I had always wondered what was underneath it. I had a bit of time at the end of the summer and I thought I would take a look,” said the discoverer. Mr Mowatt found a cavern underneath the slab of stone and he then pushed down a rod attached to an underwater camera he used for looking at wrecks, discovering a chambered cairn with skulls against the edge. “It was amazing to think that we were looking at something that had not seen the light of day for 5,000 years. One of the skulls was looking straight at me. It set me back for a moment,” Mr Mowatt said.

Mr Mowatt got in touch with Julie Gibbon, the Orkney county archeologist, who told him he had made a significant find. Ms Gibbon said she hoped Historic Scotland would support the excavation of the site – which is around 100 metres away from the Tomb of the Eagles, the chambered cairn where Orkney farmer Ronnie Simison found 348 human skulls in 1958.

Until the newly found tomb is fully excavated it will not be known how extensive it might be. There are at least four skulls inside – but the archeologist believes there may also be shards of pottery – or other artefacts which can be rescued before the water washes them away.

Ms Gibbon said the tomb needed to be examined quickly because of potential damage from water seeping in and out, but that said she had high hopes that the excavation would shed fresh light on Neolithic society and ritual. “I’m hoping Historic Scotland is going to support us. This is going to give us a lot of answers about Neolithic life,” she said.

Edited from The Scotsman (2 October 2010)

via Stone Pages Archaeo News: Significant Neolithic tomb found in a Scottish garden.

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Unique Bronze Age burial chamber excavated in Scotland

Posted on 09 October 2010 by Aine MacDermot

A 4000-year-old burial chamber in Perthshire has been described as Scotland’s ‘Valley of the Kings.’ Excavation of the site at Forteviot began in earnest last year and has been regarded as something of an archaeological jewel. It was uncovered by the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project, run by archaeologists from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Chester universities, and the results of the project’s first three years have just been published by Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust.

Researchers first discovered the four-tonne capstone slab covering the burial chamber in 2008, but had to wait until last year to organise the resources to lift it. The team had hoped there was a burial chamber beneath but had no idea it would prove to be one of the best preserved sites in Britain, almost undamaged by the passage of time. The high quality of preservation proved to be ‘virtually unique’ and archaeologists were soon claiming the early Bronze Age grave as a site of ‘exceptional importance.’

At the entrance, a stone sealed the grave so well that organic materials survived, with a leather bag, unidentified wooden objects, plant matter and a distinctive bronze dagger with a gold hilt band among the items found. The plant matter was later identified as meadowsweet blossoms and was hailed as the first proof that people in the Bronze Age laid flowers upon the graves of loved ones. Together with carvings on the underside of the capstone, the findings were taken as evidence that the grave was that of a significant person.

The team returned this year to reveal more impressive burials and monuments, indicating that the site was a significant centre of ceremony and burial in the early prehistoric and Pictish periods. Excavations explored part of a massive Neolithic timber enclosure – the monument required over 200 huge timber posts which needed a ramp to hoist them into position. The site continued as a major burial location and ritual landscape into the Bronze Age. There are also square barrow cemeteries from the Pictish period and although these burial mounds have not yet been dated, their form suggests they are early, demonstrating that people in the Dark Ages were using the prehistoric earthworks as a sacred place for burial in the period around the formation of the Pictish kingdom.

Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham said the burial site helped to underline “the absolutely central importance of this part of Perthshire to the whole of Scotland.” The full story, along with illustrations and photographs, is revealed in a new 60-page Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust publication, Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot Project Report 2006-2009. The booklet is available from the trust’s office, Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the AK Bell Library.

Edited from The Courier (25 September 2010)

via Stone Pages Archaeo News: Unique Bronze Age burial chamber excavated in Scotland.

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Stonehenge boy with the necklace was from the Mediterranean

Posted on 09 October 2010 by Aine MacDermot

In 2005, excavation for road construction 5 kilometers from Stonehenge unearthed the complete skeleton of a teenage boy. He was lying on his side and wore a unique necklace of 90 amber beads. Now, isotope studies of his teeth have indicated that he grew up in the region around the Mediterranean Sea.

The excavation was conducted by archaeologists from the British Geological Survey. Professor Jane Evans, the head of this organization, describes the find. “He’s around 14 or 15 years old and he’s buried with this beautiful necklace. The position of his burial, the fact he’s near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he’s of significant status.” She notes that during the Bronze Age, burial at Stonehenge would be akin to modern burial at Westminster Abbey.

Her conclusion about the high status of the boy is supported by Dr. Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology, who said: “Amber necklaces are not common finds. Most archaeologists would say that when you find burials like this… People who can get these rare and exotic materials are people of some importance.”

Dental enamel in teeth retains a trace of the isotope ratio of oxygen present in the drinking water consumed during childhood. Strontium isotopes from rocks get into the food supply and can also be measured in teeth. When data from both isotopes are combined, it is possible to trace the origins back to a given region.

Another skeleton found earlier in the Stonehenge area was also tested in this way. That individual was found to have come from a colder climate, perhaps in the mountains of what is now Germany. Known as the “Amesbury Archer”, he carried some of the oldest gold and copper objects found to date in Britain. His remains were dated to 4,300 years BPE, so he lived 800 years earlier than the boy.

The presence of two people who traveled a great distance to get to Stonehenge could indicate that it was a very well-known landmark for hundreds of years in the Bronze Age. According to Dr. Fitzpatrick, “We see the beginning of the Bronze Age as a period of great mobility across Europe. People, ideas, objects are all moving very fast for a century or two. At the time when the boy with the amber necklace was buried, there are really no new technologies coming in [to Britain]. We need to turn to look at why groups of people – because this is a youngster – are making long journeys. They may be travelling within family groups. They may be coming to visit Stonehenge because it was an incredibly famous and important place, as it is today. But we don’t know the answer.”

Edited from BBC News 28 September 2010, The Daily Mail 1 October 2010

via Stone Pages Archaeo News: Stonehenge boy with the necklace was from the Mediterranean.

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Celtic scholar Barry Raftery dies

Posted on 23 August 2010 by Aine MacDermot

THE DEATH has taken place of Prof Barry Raftery, emeritus professor of archaeology at UCD.

Prof Raftery, who was recognised as the country’s leading scholar on the archaeology of later prehistoric societies, was appointed to the chair of Celtic archaeology in UCD in 1996.

He was visiting professor of European prehistory in Ludwig-Maximilians Universität Munich in 1969-70, and was visiting professors at Kiel University (1991) and the University of Vienna (1997).

He received numerous research awards. A former senior vice-president of the Royal Irish Academy, he also held membership of the German Archaeological Institute and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1995.

His early postgraduate work was on hill forts, and he published the first overview of the form and roles of such sites in Ireland. This also led to the excavation of a critically important site at Rathgall, Co Wicklow.

His doctoral research, on the Irish Iron Age, resulted in two major books: A Catalogue of Irish Iron Age Antiquities (1983), and La Tène in Ireland: Problems of Origin, Development and Chronology (1984).

He played a major role in the international Celtic exhibition in Venice in the early 1990s, which resulted in a landmark volume, The Celts (1991), of which he was an editor, and his own book, Pagan Celtic Ireland (1994).

Prof Raftery, who was in his mid-60s, died at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, on Sunday, following a long illness. He is survived by his wife Nuala and daughters Sara and Tilly.

His removal takes place this evening to the Church of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners, Rathmines, arriving at 5pm. Following funeral Mass in Rathmines at 10am tomorrow he will be buried in the cemetery of St Mary’s, Glenfarne, Co Leitrim.

via Celtic scholar Barry Raftery dies – The Irish Times – Tue, Aug 24, 2010

RIP Dr. Raftery, you will be missed.

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Two ancient Irish ring-forts destroyed

Posted on 23 August 2010 by Aine MacDermot

The Irish Department of the Environment has launched an investigation into the complete destruction of two ancient ring-forts. Senior archaeologists from its National Monuments section are liaising with gardaí in Co Cork as part of the probe. The investigation was launched following works on farmland in the village of Kilmurry near Macroom, Co Cork, on which the two recorded monuments were located.

There are about 100,000 ring-forts recorded across Ireland; of these, only about 250 have so far been subjected to archaeological excavation. They are oval or circular fortified settlements or farmsteads that were built mostly during the Early Christian and Iron Age periods. These structures date from about 600 BCE to about 1,000 CE and some were still inhabited up until the 1700s. They were owned by wealthy individuals who built houses and kept cattle inside the earthen ditches.

The two ring-forts at the centre of this investigation were considered among the region’s finer examples. One was oval and measured almost 60m in an east-west direction, 48m in a north-south direction, and was enclosed by a two-metre high earthen bank. Archaeologists had found the remains of cultivation ridges crossing its interior. The other ring-fort was circular and slightly smaller, measuring just more than 33 metres, and was surrounded by a two-metre high earthen ditch. It featured numerous cattle gaps across its bank.  However, both structures have been completely leveled. No above-ground trace remains. All their earthen banks have been removed and filled in.

Under the terms of Irish National Monuments Legislation, landowners are required to give at least four week’s notice to the Department of the Environment about their intention to carry out works near recorded monuments. This did not happen in this case. The Friends of the Irish Environment group has now written to Environment Minister John Gormley calling for the full weight of the law to be brought to bear in this case.

Sources: Irish Examiner.com (9 August 2010), The Irish Times (10 August 2010)

via Stone Pages Archaeo News: Two ancient Irish ring-forts destroyed.

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