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Dounby
Cist (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Inhumation (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Mace (Stone)(Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Site Name Dounby
Classification Cist (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Inhumation (Neolithic) - (Bronze Age), Mace (Stone)(Neolithic) - (Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 1843
Site Number HY22SE 12
NGR HY 2945 2014
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1843
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Sandwick
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY22SE 12 2945 2014.
(HY 2945 2014) Stone Cist found A.D. 1839 (NAT)
OS 6" map, Orkney, 2nd ed., (1903).
The cist, 4 ft 2 1/2 ins long by 2 ft 11 ins broad by 2 ft 9 ins deep, contained a crouched burial, accompanied by a 'mallet head' of polished gneiss, which was donated to Stromness Museum.
The mallet is 3 ins long, about 6 ins in circumference at the thickest end and has a hole quite through, apparently for a handle, about seven-tenths of an inch in diameter.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845; RCAHMS 1946.
No further information.
Visited by OS (NKB) 16 May 1967.
The 'John O'Groat Journal' in 1838 describes the discovery of a cist with a skeleton and grey marble 'mallet'. A mallet is also mentioned in a brief description by 'The Orkney and Shetland Journal and Fisherman's Magazine' in August 1839.
M Howe 2006
Note (2020)
Dounby
This burial site in Orkney Islands was a focus for funerary practices in the Neolithic/Bronze Age period, between 2900 BC and 1501 BC.
Prehistoric Grave Goods project site ID: 60175
CANMORE ID: 1843
Total no. graves with grave goods: 1
Total no. people with grave goods: 1
Total no. grave goods: 1
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 60065
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Inhumation
Grave good: Macehead
Materials used: Gneiss
Current museum location: Orkney Museum (Stromness)
Museum accession no.: A187
Further details, the full project database and downloads of project publications can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5284/1052206
An accessible visualisation of the database can be found here: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/grave-goods/map/
Orkney Smr Note
A grave was found when, the proprietor of a farm in Dounby,
accidently came in contact with it's cover stone while ploughing.
It contained a human skeleton and at the right hand lay a mallet
head of gneiss, finely marked with dark and light layers and
beautifully polished, now in Stromness Museum. The head lay NW by
N. The grave was 4ft 2.5in by 2ft 11in by 2ft 9in deep formed of
flags only about an inch thick.
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
