| |
| The
Tomb |
| |
| Maes
Howe is not only the largest and most sophisticated
tomb of the type but is one of the finest prehistoric
monuments in Europe. The tomb was built sometime
around 2800 BC but it is becoming more and more
apparent that the tomb was culmination of a long
and complex history of the site. It sits near the
southern shore of Loch Harray and was undoubtedly
associated with the nearby stone circles at Stenness
and Brodgar as well as the prehistoric settlement
at Barnhouse and another currently being excavated
at the Ness of Brodgar. The entrance passage and
inner chambers were cleared by James Farrer in 1861.
Further investigations by Gordon Childe in the 1950’s,
Colin Renfrew in the 1970’s and Colin Richards
in the 1990’s were confined to the mound and
the area outside the tomb. |
| |
View
of Lochs Harray and Stenness showing Maes
Howe and the stone circles at Brodgar and
Stenness (James Farrer, 1861)
|
| |
| In
the 19th century the tomb was a conical mound, between
28 and 30 metres in diameter and 11 metres high,
with a deep depression at the top, sitting on a
broad, circular platform surrounded by a ditch.
Its appearance was modified somewhat when it was
taken into state care in 1910—a concrete dome
was installed over the chamber and the top of the
mound was reshaped to give it a smoother profile.
Today it measures 36 x 32 metres and stands 7.3
metres high. |
| |
Maes
Howe from the south
|
| |
| The
tomb itself is surrounded by a shallow ditch and
a low bank enclosing an oval area about 76 x 60
metres. A survey of the area between the mound and
the ditch revealed features under the turf—including
a stone-lined pit, possibly for a standing stone.
|
| |
| The
entrance passage is on the southwest side and is
oriented in a direct line with the midwinter sunset—there
is a standing stone (the Barnhouse Stone) that marks
the line of sight. Every year, for several days
on either side of winter solstice, the last rays
of the setting sun shine directly down the passage
and fall on the rear wall of the chamber. The passage
itself was about 16 metres long and is divided into
two sections, marked by what appear to be door checks.
The outer section is somewhat lower and narrower
than the rest. It was 70cm high and 70cm across
when it was first cleared. Unfortunately, it was
badly disturbed and was modified to a certain extent
during the later restorations but from the earliest
published sections it is apparent that it had a
paved floor and was roofed for at least part of
its length. The inner section of the passage, which
is on a slightly different alignment, is |
|
Maes
Howe and the Barnhouse Stone |
Looking
down the entrance passage to the chamber |
|
|
1.35 metres high, 1.05 metres wide and 9.5 metres
long. For much of this length, the walls were made
up of two enormous stone slabs, one on each side,
about 5.6 metres long and 1.2 metres high. The outer
2.4 metres are masonry. On the left-hand side, just
past the door checks, is a triangular recess a metre
high and 60cm deep. A stone was found in the passageway
when it was first cleared and it fits neatly into
the space. It is generally believed that it was
manoeuvred back and forth to either block or open
access to the interior as required. Nowadays, the
tour guide will usually get a child to rock it gently
from side to side to show have easy it can be “walked”
into position. Just before the entrance to the burial
chamber there are a pair of stones set forward on
either side, narrowing the width of the passage
to about 70cm. These presumably marked the transition
from the land of the living to the land of the dead.
Beyond them were a pair of taller uprights which
continued the original line of the passage and supported
the lintel over the doorway. |
| |
|
| |
| The
burial chamber is a square and cruciform (4.7 x
4.7 metres), reminiscent of the layout of some of
the houses at Barnhouse. The shallow recesses that
formed the arms of the cross were flanked by orthostats
ranging in height from 2.4-2.9 metres, which had
been built into the walls of the chamber. The south-western
stone was engraved with a geometric carving very
similar to those found at Skara Brae. |
| |
|
The walls were crafted out of carefully selected
stone slabs, some of which run the full width of
the chamber. The masonry is superb, the stones all
carefully fitted and trimmed to create a flush surface.
From a height of about 1.4 metres, the walls were
corbelled to a height of at least 3.8 metres, and
perhaps as much as a metre or two more (depending
on the size of the capstone). We will never know
for certain because the capstone and upper courses
were removed when the Vikings broke into the tomb
nearly a thousand years ago. It is now thought that
these stones were originally free-standing and not
intended to buttress the masonry of the walls. In
fact, they would have weakened the structure not
strengthened it. |
| |
|
Entrance
to the Burial Chamber |
|
|
Rear
Wall of the Burial Chamber |
|
|
| |
| In
the centre of each of the three back walls and at
about waist height was the entrance to a side cell.
The cells were approximately the same size—from
1.7 to 2.06 metres across by about 1.4 metres deep
and about 1 metre high. In each case, the roofs
and rear walls are a single slab while the other
walls are masonry. The hatches were presumable blocked
by the stone plugs that were found lying on the
floor of the chamber. |
| |
|
Interior
of Maes Howe (James Farrer 1862) |
| |
| As
far as human remains are concerned, only one skull
fragment (now lost) was found in one of the cells.
Petrie also notes the presence of “a quantity
of bones and the teeth of a horse” in the
cells. The most likely explanation for this dearth
of material is not hard to find. As mentioned above,
the tomb was broken into by the Vikings in the 12th
century and the tomb was thoroughly ransacked. The
walls bear a number of runic inscriptions that testify
to this, among them— |
| |
Crusaders
broke into Maes Howe. Lif the earl's cook carved
these runes. To the north-west is a great treasure
hidden. It was long ago that a great treasure
was hidden here. Happy is he that might find
that great treasure. Haakon alone bore treasure
from this mound.
|
| |
It
is surely true what I say than treasure was
taken away. Treasure was carried off in three
nights before those.
|
| |
| Stone
Age farmers had nothing that a Viking would consider
treasure which means that the tomb had probably
been clear out already and usedfor the burial of
a Pictish or earlier Viking chief. We will never
know for certain. |
| |
| The
tomb is covered by a mound of mixed clay and rock
fragments that form a very hard, compact matrix
about 38 metres in diameter. As was the case at
other tombs, it incorporated a couple of low revetment
walls as shown in the plan above. |
| |
| A
Henge Monument? |
| |
| Maes
Howe is unusual among contemporary tombs in that
it sits on a platform, surrounded by a ditch and
an outer embankment. This particular arrangement,
especially the interior ditch, is the defining feature
of that peculiarly British monument, the henge.
However, there is generally at least one entrance
to a henge, a gap in the bank and a causeway across
the ditch, but there is none at Maes Howe. Investigations
directed by Colin Richards |
| 
Contour
Plan of Maes Howe showing the location
of the trenches (contour intervals are
at 50cm). After C. Richards, 2005.
|
|
| in
1991 showed that, unlike other henges, the outer
bank was not simply the spoil from the ditch but,
in fact, a stone wall that stood at least 6 courses
high. In fact, judging by the spread of stone in
front of it, the wall must have been of considerable
height. It was made up of an outer and an inner
face of masonry with a rubble core—a type
of ‘double wall’ construction well known
from Skara Brae and Knap of Howar. |
| |
Aerial
View of Maes Howe
|
| |
| In
the course of the same excavations Richards uncovered
a drainage channel running away from the entrance
passage. It was covered by a flagstone pavement
and both ran on the same orientation as the entrance
passage but disappeared under the clay of the platform
(see plan below). Obviously both features must have
been present before the tomb was built and are almost
certainly connected with an earlier structure. This
building was |
|
Plan
of the features outside the tomb entrance
(after C. Richards 2005) |
|
subsequently demolished and the site was levelled
by the addition of clay from the nearby loch to
create the aforementioned platform. Next, the four
orthostats were dragged to the site and set up in
the positions they occupy today, aligned to the
midwinter’s sunset. The Barnhouse Stone, which
stands over 700 metres away on this same alignment,
may well have been erected at the same time but
there is no way of knowing for sure. |
| |
| A
resistivity survey of the platform revealed an anomaly
below the surface of the platform. On excavation
it turned out to be the socket for a substantial
standing stone well over 6 metres high, judging
by its dimensions. No sign was found of any other
stones but that does not necessarily mean that they
did not exist. On the one hand, there is a solitary
stone beside the nearby tomb at Howe. On the other,
there are tombs at Newgrange in Ireland and Clava
in Inverness-shire that are enclosed by stone circles.
In this particular instance, the stone had been
deliberately removed at some unknown point in the
past but those involved may not have done as tidy
a job with any others that stood there. |
| |
|
Balnuaran
of Clava. Tomb |
| |
| We
have no idea how long the four orthostats were left
standing exposed before the rest of the superstructure
of the tomb was built. Rectangular settings of free-standing
stones known as “Four-Posters” are fairly
common in the Grampians and other regions of Scotland
and Ireland so there may have been a gap of some
time before they were incorporated into the tomb.
It is probably that the ditch and enclosure wall
were added at this time but it is impossible to
say for sure. Its principal function would seem
have been to provide a physical barrier—perhaps
a moat—separating the world of the dead from
that of the living. Both Childe in the 1950’s
and Renfrew in the 1970’s ran trenches through
the outer bank to examine its profile but these
were located in the most disturbed stretches of
the circuit. |
| |
| |
