Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1016370
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016370
More than any other prehistoric monument, the design and execution of Maes Howe epitomises the skill of neolithic masons in Orkney, and the tomb is rightly considered to be one of the supreme achievements of prehistoric Europe. It is inevitable that such a huge mound should have been robbed long ago, and when it was opened in 1861 by James Farrer it was indeed empty of its original contents, apart from a fragment of human skull. Its location, close to the great ceremonial complex of the Brodgar-Stenness circles, is presumably no accident.
The mound was built on a levelled circular platform, encircled by a low bank composed of earth scraped up from a shallow ditch on its inner side; the mound itself, 25m in diameter and 7m high, consists largely of clay and stones, but there is an inner core of stones casing and supporting the chamber. The outermost part of the entrancepassage has been restored, but from the doorchecks inwards it is original. The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance. In keeping with the proportions of the tomb, the passage is quite spacious, although at a height of 1.4m it is not possible to walk upright. Note the enormous slabs with which the passage has been constructed.
The main chamber is about 4.5m square and was originally about the same height, with three sidecells entered above ground-level; in each corner there is a buttress designed to help in supporting the weight of the cor belied roof. The masonry is superb, the slabs finely adjusted by underpinning or dressing to create a smooth face even where they are in fact oversailing one another towards the toof, and the tapering orthostats facing one side of each buttress not only create an impression of soaring vertical space but attractively interrupt the horizontal lines of the walls.
The main chamber is about 4.5 m square and was originally about the same height, with three sidecells entered above ground-level; in each corner there is a buttress designed to help in supporting the weight of the cor belied roof. The masonry is superb, the slabs finely adjusted by underpinning or dressing to create a smooth face even where they are in fact oversailing one another towards the toof, nd the tapering orthostats facing one side of each buttress not only create an impression of soaring vertical space but attractively interrupt the horizontal lines of the walls.
When Farrer dug into Maes Howe, he found that the chamber had already been broken into, as he did, from the top; from Orkneyinga Saga and from the runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber, it is clear that it was intered on more than one occasion by Norsemen in the 12th century, to whom the mound was known as Orkhaugr. During the struggle between the rival earls Erlend and Harald for control of the earldom, Harald and some of his men sought shelter in Maes Howe from a snowstorm, but it was such a terrible experience that two of them went mad, ' which slowed them down badly' says the saga, though they still reached their destination by nightfall. The following winter of 1153-4, crusaders gathered together ready for a trip to the Holy Land broke into the chamber and incised some of the runic inscriptions, and there were probably other occasions as well when runes were cut there. This is one of the largest extant collection of runic inscriptions carved in stone. There are about thirty inscriptions, including both ordinary runes and cryptographic twig runes, and there are also some beautifully executed carvings of a walrus, a serpent knot and a dragon or lion on the north-east buttress, all in typically vigorous Scandinavian style.
Two of the most interesting inscriptions are nos 18 and 16 (the original numbering applied by Farrer is still used) on the large block on the north side of the entrance to the south-east cell and continuing on the cell lintel, which read, in a mixture of twig runes and ordinary runes: 'These runes were carved by the man most skilled in runes in the western ocean', 'with the axe which belonged to Gaukr Trandilsson in the south of Iceland'. A superb piece of genealogical detective work by a modern Icelander, Hermann Palsson, has identified the rune-carver as Thorhallr Asgrimsson, the greatgreat-great grandson of the man who slew Gaukr Trandilsson some 200 years earlier, the story of which is told in Njals Saga. For the archaeologist trying to use objects as dating evidence, the thought of an axe still in use after six generations if very sobering!
Several other inscriptions mention treasure: eg 'It is long ago that a great treasure was hidden here'; 'Happy is he who might find the great treasure'. Until recently, it was assumed that this was wishful thinking and no more, as treasure to Norsemen would mean gold or silver, neither of which could have been buried with the original pre-metal neolithic occupants of the tomb. A new slant to the question arose after excavations in the 1970s, when structural evidence for a rebuilding of the bank encircling the mound was radiocarbon dated to the 9th century AD. It now seems possible that the tomb was re-used and its external appearance improved for the burial of a Viking chieftain, whose rich grave-goods were stolen three centuries later. 'Hakon alone bore the treasure out of this mound' records one of the inscriptions, while another insists 'It is certain and true as I say, that the treasure has been moved from here. The treasure was taken away three nights before they broke into his mound'.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Orkney’, (1996).
