Excavation

Date 14 June 2010 - 25 June 2010

Event ID 881211

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/881211

ND 3405 8905 Excavations from 14–25 June 2010 at Roeberry Barrow (ND38NW 5) continued investigations into the Bronze Age funerary landscape on the peninsula. Last season the large burial mound (c11.5m wide by 1.2m high) was found to contain a complex of central cists set

in a sub-circular stone constructed mound. This indicated that the mound had a considerable history of burials along with several phases of structural refurbishment. The most striking of these was when a square outer retaining wall was constructed onto the earlier sub-circular retaining

wall, effectively creating a square barrow. The central cists contained the remains of cremation burials; however, there was also evidence for inhumation burials. All the burials had been disturbed by antiquarian activity, but the cist burials would appear to date to the Bronze Age. A decorated rim sherd from a Bronze Age Food Vessel was also recovered

from the material to the rear of the later revetment wall. The square barrow refurbishment could be Pictish following a burial tradition found in northern Scotland. This season’s excavations found that the earlier outer

walls consisted of two parallel dry stone built retaining walls forming a large sub-circular structure c10m in diameter. The glacial till had been stripped prior to construction and a slight platform was scalped out of the clay. A thin greyish layer of clay found directly below the walls could represent some form of pre-cairn preparation layer. Extension of the

two trench quadrants revealed that the area around the mound consisted of glacial till overlain by slumped stony material from the mound. A single oval pit (0.56 x 0.51 x 0.17m) c3m to the NW of the outer retaining wall cut into the glacial till was found to be sterile apart from a single rounded slab.

A large rectangular box cist (1.45 x 0.85 x 0.49m) in the SW part of the upper mound was found to contain loose backfill material from antiquarian activity. A cremation burial found in the base was disturbed and pushed to the corners and was overlain with otter sprait. It appears that the cist was open and used as an otter holt before it was disturbed and backfilled by antiquarians. It would appear that this cist represents a Bronze Age insertion rather than a later inhumation burial as suggested in 2009.

Excavations in the central area demonstrated that the central cist complex of upright slabs was constructed onto fill material. It is possible that some of these slabs formed a cist for an inhumation burial (perhaps Pictish), but these were not fully exposed and require more investigation. A very large upright slab below the loose material in the western part of the central area appeared to have been broken, perhaps deliberately, during later refurbishment of the mound. This orthostat sat in a large central hollow

in the stone constructed core of the mound that may have been lined with walling or upright slabs, since removed. Undisturbed deposits were encountered in the base of the hollow. It is possible that the central part of the mound may have contained burial related structures that were dismantled during later phases of refurbishment. This may have consisted of a large cist or a central burial chamber perhaps dating to the Neolithic. Some human remains were recovered from the upper hollow fill that probably derive from a disturbed inhumation burial; however, none were

encountered in the lower central area. This could suggest that any central burials have been removed or they could remain undisturbed. The central area was not fully excavated. The possibility that the mound started life as a Neolithic burial monument that was later reused in the Bronze Age and the early medieval period highlights considerable longevity of use and significance of place in the funerary practices of the communities in the Cantick area.

Archive: Currently with ORCA

Funder: Orkney Islands Council, Scapa Flow Landscape

Partnership (HLF) and ORCA