South Uist, Hornish Point, Cnoc Mor

NF74NE 18 758 470.

Coring revealed that midden deposits extended up to 20m inland and over a length of at least 60m along the exposed sand face. Its depth was about 3m. Excavation uncovered a series of superimposed drystone built structures, one of which had a sub-floor stone drain and radial walls, characteristic of a wheelhouse.

J Barber 1984.

1984 excavation revealed burial overlain by wheel-house; 4 pits of which 3 contained animal (ox and sheep) and human bone, 1 human bone only. Remains of a single individual aged about 12 years and more probably male. Skeletons disarticulated by butchery, at or after time of death, with some evidence for subsequent excavation.

Pits chronologically bracketed between 460 +/- 50 bc (GU-2161) and 385 +/- 50 bc (GU-2017) (Dates not calibrated for carbonate retention).

J Barber, P Halstead, H James and F Lee 1989.

STAR was grant-aided by Historic Scotland to provide a PhD student, who is carrying out research into the Marine Reservoir Effect, with sample pairs of charred macroplant and sea shell from the archived material from the tapestry excavations carried out by the Central Excavation Unit in 1984, at Baleshare, North Uist, and Hornish Point, South Uist. Further limited tapestry excavations were carried out at the eroding midden deposits at Baleshare and Hornish Point, as well as two eroding midden sites at Hougarry, North Uist, in order to retrieve further dating and related samples.

Information from AOC Archaeology Group

NF74 3 HORNISH POINT ('Cnoc Mor')

NF/758470

This wheelhouse with its associated middens in South Uist [3, fig. 1] was explored in 1984 and the detailed report has recently appeared on the internet, and this should be consulted for full details [8]. Coring first revealed that midden deposits extended up to 20m inland and over a length of at least 60m along the exposed sand face and to a depth of up to 2.5m; they were covered by up to 3m of blown sand.

Excavation uncovered a series of superimposed drystone built structures, one of which had a sub-floor stone drain and radial walls, characteristic of the wheelhouse form of stone roundhouse [2]. The explorations also found a burial under the roundhouse [3, fig. 2], as well as four pits of which three contained animal (ox and sheep) and human bone. The burial – which may be older than the roundhouse rather than a foundation deposit – consisted of a single individual probably male and aged about 12 years. The skeleton had been dismembered by butchery probably some time after death when the body was partly decomposed, and the fragments distributed among the four pits. Cannibalism was ruled out as there were none of the marks of skinning, filleting and butchering which were found on the animal bones. Barber suggests that the boy may have died under “inauspic-ious circumstances”, perhaps at sea, and had therefore been buried in this peculiar way when he was found on the beach [3, 778].

The pits under the roundhouse were dated to between 460 +/- 50 bc (GU-2161) and 385+/- 50 bc (GU-2017); these dates are not calibrated for carbonate retention [3].

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NF 74 NE 18: 2. Discovery and Excavation in Scotland, 1984, 45: 3. Barber, Halstead, James and Lee 1989: 4. Armit 1992, 212-3: 5. Armit 1996, 147, 149 and 155-57: 6. Gilmour 2002, 57, 63, 66: 7. Crawford 2002, 117 and 118: 8. See the Scottish Archaeology Internet Report at http://www.sair.org.uk/sair3/

E W MacKie 2007

Hornish Point

This burial site in Western Isles was a focus for funerary practices in the Iron Age period, between 200 BC and AD 20.

Prehistoric Grave Goods project site ID: 60203

CANMORE ID: 9913

Total no. graves with grave goods: 1

Total no. people with grave goods: 1

Total no. grave goods: 4

Prehistoric Grave Goods project Grave ID: 60091

Grave type: Pit

Burial type(s): Inhumation

Grave good: Animal Burial (Specified type)

Materials used: Bone/Antler/Horn/Ivory/Tooth (Animal) [Bone]

Current museum location: Unknown

Grave good: Animal Burial (Specified type)

Materials used: Bone/Antler/Horn/Ivory/Tooth (Animal) [Bone]

Current museum location: Unknown

Grave good: Animal Burial (Specified type)

Materials used: Bone/Antler/Horn/Ivory/Tooth (Animal) [Bone]

Current museum location: Unknown

Grave good: Animal Burial (Specified type)

Materials used: Bone/Antler/Horn/Ivory/Tooth (Animal) [Bone]

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/