Orkney Smr Note

Event ID 620633

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/620633

The dating of Liddel, a burnt mound in Orkney, suggests a range in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (J W Hedges 1975). The plan of the building at Liddel resembles other domestic site plans in the Northern Isles, particularly Calder's prehistoric houses in Shetland. Some of the domestic pottery from he burnt mound sites, Liddel and Beaquoy (J W Hedges 1975) appeared to be gritted with burnt stone. This indicates local manufacture and suggest that pottery was produced, at least for domestic purposes on the lines of a cottage industry. Ard shares were found at Liddel: and bones of sheep or goat, fragments of a quern and the presence of cereal

pollen in the records from Liddel all connect the sites to agricultural activities. The pollen evidence from the burnt mound sites suggests an open landscape dominated by heath and small shrubs with indications of cereal production. [R4]

Liddel burnt mound which now stands 2m high was entered via a pathway over the mound and is similar in many respects to early houses. It is oval, thick walled and is dominated by a centrally set watertight trough which has a capacity of 1,000 litres. When found, it was half full of fractured and fire reddened stones. Objects found include hammer-stones, a share from an ard, some possible sling stones, a chipped roundel that may have been served as a pot lid and a few sherds of undecorated bucket shaped pottery vessels. It seems that the trough was used for cooking by a method of heating stones to boil water. [R5]

Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]