Archaeology Notes

Event ID 646730

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/646730

HY75SE 12 7584 5411

(Name: HY 7600 5408) Two Stone Cists containing Human Remains found AD 1874 (NAT).

OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1900).

Two cists were found in 1874 near the east end of the farm steading at Antabreck in a field of clay loam. They lay end to end and only about a foot below the surface.

One cist, 2' by 2 1/2' and 1 1/2' deep, contained portions of two skeletons; the other 4'5" by 2'5" deep, was composed of apparently dressed flagstones of a better finish than those of the first. It contained an apparently undisturbed heap of ashes, probably of wood, in which were small fragments of half-calcined bones and teeth. The ashes appeared 'to have been laid upon coarse cloth or interlaced rushes, portions of which could be distinguished on the floor of the cist so decayed that it was almost impossible to take it up without destroying it.' After inspection the coverstones were replaced and recovered with earth.

Portions of the cist contents were donated by the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by Dr Traill in 1875.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1876 (Donations); Name Book 1879.

The larger of the two cists was re-discovered recently, and is preserved under a turf-covering complete with capstone, at HY 7584 5411.

Re-surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB), 22 July 1970.