St Andrews, Orkney
Barrow (Early Bronze Age), Cist (Early Bronze Age), Cremation (Early Bronze Age)
Site Name St Andrews, Orkney
Classification Barrow (Early Bronze Age), Cist (Early Bronze Age), Cremation (Early Bronze Age)
Canmore ID 2973
Site Number HY50NW 15
NGR HY 5 0
NGR Description Unlocated
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/2973
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish St Andrews And Deerness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY50NW 15 unlocated.
George Petrie records the discovery of four cists, three of them in barrows, in the parish of St. Andrews, without locating them more accurately, though he mentions that one (C.below) was found "near Kirkwall and within a couple of miles of ... (A and B)"
A. About March 1850 a barrow, about 15ft diameter and 4 1/2ft. high was opened. In its centre was a short cist containing an urn, 13ins. high and 10ins. wide at its mouth, three fourths full of burnt bones and ashes. It stood in the centre of the cist, in a quantity of fine dry clay heaped about halfway up the outside. At the NW end of the cist was a rude stone implement deposited in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) some years before 1867.
A sketch by Petrie, preserved in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, shows that the barrow was of clay. Bronze Age (RCAHMS 1946).
B. Petrie opened a barrow, 22ft diameter and about 2ft high, in March 1850. In its centre was a short cist containing burnt bones and ashes covered with clay. Outside the cist, close to its NNE end, lay a rude stone implement which seemed to have been used as a whststone.
C. A similar relationship of a "so-called corn- crusher, rubber, or stone pestle" with the end of a cist in a barrow near Kirkwall was found by Petrie. The pestle, with the whetstone (from B) were exhibited in 1859 to the British Association at Aberdeen.
D. Petrie records the recent possession of a bone axe, or hammer, with a square hole cut in it for a handle. It lay on the cover stone of a cist containing burnt bones, and was covered by a flagstone of the same size as the cover of the cist in which it lay.
G Petrie 1870; RCAHMS 1946.
No further information could be obtained about these barrows and cists. 'C' may possibly be referred to in Orkney 108 NE 24.
Visited by OS (RD) 12 April 1964.
Note (2020)
St Andrews
This burial site in Orkney Islands was a focus for funerary practices in the Bronze Age period, between 2200 BC and 1501 BC.
Prehistoric Grave Goods project site ID: 60061
CANMORE ID: 2973
Total no. graves with grave goods: 1
Total no. people with grave goods: 1
Total no. grave goods: 2
Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 60029
Grave type: Cist
Burial type(s): Cremation
Grave good: Pot
Materials used: Pottery
Current museum location: Unknown
Grave good: Whetstone
Materials used: Stone (Uncertain/Unspecified)
Current museum location: Unknown
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
Barrow opened by Petrie, March 1850. Stone implement, identified as whetstone but from his illustration apparently an ard point, found outside and near NNE end of a cist formed of slabs in centre of barrow, 22ft diameter, 2ft high. Cist had burnt bones, ashes covered with clay; it was 2ft long, 18in wide,
1ft deep. [R1,R3]
NMA catalogue lists 2 elongated stone impliments from St. Andrews, both donated by G Petrie, 1867. [R2]
Petrie has note of his sending the ard point to NMA, 1865, with details of the original discovery as set out above. Petrie Large notebook no 8, in RMS.
OS states that four unlocated cists in St Andrews parish are recorded by Petrie. OS believes this one may be the one referred to on old series Orkney 108 NE 24. OS card.
Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]
