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tomb lies on the lower slope of Wideford Hill, below
the smaller tomb named after it (the hill that is).
It was opened in the early 19th century but its
contents remained undisturbed until the site was
reinvestigated by Colin Renfrew in 1972. The cairn
is a large one (D= 31 metres and surviving to a
height of about 3 metres) and included at least
two concentric revetment walls within it. A short
stretch of the outer wall was uncovered on the west
side of the cairn. It turned out to be a double
wall with an inner and an outer face 1.3 metres
apart. |
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Quanterness.
Plan and Section of the Cairn |
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| The
entrance lay on the east it has been somewhat damaged
by the intrusion of a later Iron Age house but the
floor of the passage survives. The inner part is
roofed at a height of 70 cm. from the inner revetment
to the burial chamber but it is impossible to say
whether or not it was roofed for its entire length
of 9.4 metres. |
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chamber runs roughly north-south and measures
1.8 X 6.4 metres. The lowest course of the masonry
consisted of massive blocks, used to support the
heavy lintels for each of the entrances to the
side cells, but above that was a corbelled roof
of lighter stone. When the site was investigated
by George Barry in the early 1800’s, the
roof was intact and stood at a height of 3.5 metres
above the floor deposits. These were up the 30
cm. deep and were largely undisturbed when investigated
by Renfrew. |
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are six side cells symmetrically arranged with two
along each long side and one at each end. They are
much broader than they are deep Four of them still
have their roofs—stone lintels set on edge
about 2.25-2.5 metres above the floor. The SW cell
was used by Barry to access the interior and was
later filled with rubble. It is the only one to
have been completely excavated—the others
were reserved by Renfrew for future excavations.
A unique feature is a small window between one of
the cells and the main chamber—presumably
serving some ritual function. |
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deposits in the main chamber and SW cell are very
similar. Above the bedrock was a thin layer of burnt
material where fires had been lit. After this episode,
three pits were dug and two of these were investigated
in 1972. The southern one contained a crouched skeleton
covered by slabs while in the central a similar
burial had been placed in a stone-lined cist. Barry
mentions finding a complete skeleton lying on top
of the fill in one of the cells. The pits were sealed
by three further layers of deposit which contained
about 90% of the bone recovered from the tomb. The
remains of at least 157 individuals—85 adults,
36 adolescents, 26 children and 10 infants—were
found scattered throughout the tomb. Much of the
bone was broken and they were rarely found in articulation—some
of them showed evidence of burning. If you take
the unexcavated parts of the tomb into account there
was probably something on the order of 400 interments
altogether. |
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Wood
fires were lit from time to time in the upper levels
and some of the bone showed evidence of burning.
Among the animal bones were those of cattle and
sheep that were probably brought in as joints of
meat. Artefacts mixed in with the bone included
Grooved Ware sherds, domestic tools and an antler
hammer.
Since the 1972 excavations, the site has been backfilled
and closed to the public in order to preserve it
for future research. So no pictures. |
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