Orkney, Orkney Islands, Scotland, British Isles

Carbon Date. 1060. Late Medieval

Report: Carbonised plant material from midden-like layer of rectangular building at Birsay Beachview (Studio site), Orkney, Scotland. Comment [Ed]: Date lies within Norse period.

ID: 323, C14 ID: GU-1191 Date BP: 940 +/- 55, Start Date BP: 885, End BP: 995

OS Letter: HY, OS East: 247, OS North: 275

Archaeologist Name: C D Morris, N Emery

Reference Name: Univ Durham/Univ Newcastle-upon-Tyne Archaeol Rep for 1979, 29; Discovery Excav Scot for 1979, 22

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 780. Early Medieval

Report: Bone, id as mammal (ox, sheep, pig) (id. D J Rackham), from enclosure, Phase B1-2, DS76C1 at Brough of Deerness [Map], Orkney, Scotland.

ID: 1856, C14 ID: GU-1558 Date BP: 1220 +/- 90, Start Date BP: 1130, End BP: 1310

OS Letter: HY, OS East: 596, OS North: 87

Archaeologist Name: C D Morris

Reference Name: Proc Soc Antiq Scotl, 116, 1986, 307-74

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 1080. Late Medieval

Report: Bone, id as human (id. D J Rackham and S W Hillson), from enclosure, Phase C2, DS76BS, slab-covered grave at Brough of Deerness [Map], Orkney, Scotland.

ID: 1858, C14 ID: GU-1574 Date BP: 920 +/- 65, Start Date BP: 855, End BP: 985

OS Letter: HY, OS East: 596, OS North: 87

Archaeologist Name: C D Morris

Reference Name: Proc Soc Antiq Scotl, 116, 1986, 307-74

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 1135. Late Medieval

Report: Human bone from cist - no grave goods at Sand Side, Graemsay, Orkney, Scotland.

ID: 208, C14 ID: GU-1067 Date BP: 865 +/- 55, Start Date BP: 810, End BP: 920

OS Letter: HY, OS East: 265, OS North: 60

Archaeologist Name: J W Hedges

Reference Name: Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 109, 1977-8 (1980), 374-8

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 1585BC. Middle Bronze Age Carbon Dates

Report: Antler mattock, id as Cervus elaphus, UPM/IV.3, from a burial cist at Crantit Farm, Kirkwall, Orkney, off Scotland. Subm C Bonsall and C Tolan-Smith. Comment (subm): sample (once mistakenly reported as from Cnoc Sligeach on Oronsay) dates to Bronze Age, confirming its context.

ID: 7607, C14 ID: OxA-4607 Date BP: 3585 +/- 55, Start Date BP: 3530, End BP: 3640

Abstract: Mesolithic artefact dating programme

Archaeologist Name: C Bonsall and C Tolan-Smith

Reference Name: Archaeometry, 40, 1998, 441; Proc Soc Antiq Scotl, 89, 1955-6, 91-106; Meso Miscellany, 16(1), 1995, 11-16

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Chapter IV Dwellings. In the month of October 1849, Mr. Petrie's attention was directed to a large tumulus or green knoll, which stands about half-way up the western declivity of Wideford-hill [Map], overlooking the beautiful bay of Firth on the mainland of Orkney, and within a short distance of the Pict's house of Quanterness, described in Barry's History of Orkney. Being on a steep and unfrequented part of the hill, it appears to have almost entirely escaped observation. An opening, however, had been attempted at some former period, but abandoned after an excavation of about a couple of feet in depth had been effected. Mr. Petrie employed men to make a section into the mound, and himself superintended and assisted in the operation, which proved one of considerable time and labour, from the large stones and the quantity of clay used in completing the external mound, as well as in the masonry of the structure found underneath. The building appears to have been con- structed in the following manner: — A place for the site having been scooped out of the side of the hill, the cells or apartments were built of large uneven stones, the walls being made gradually to converge as they rose in height, until they approached to within a foot at top. Externally the work was bounded by a wall of about two feet high. The entire structure was then brought to a conical shape with stones and clay; the stones being disposed with considerable regularity, and over all a thick layer of turf or peat had been laid. The mound which encloses the whole is about one hundred and forty feet in greatest circumference, and forty-live feet in diameter. The work of exploration was commenced by making a cut, six feet in breadth, upon the north side, and clearing away the stones and clay in the direction of the highest part of the mound. On penetrating towards the centre, at about six feet from the top, a stone was exposed placed on edge, about eighteen inches long and nine inches thick, underneath which lay another, which was found to cover a hole of about a foot square, at the top of the chamber marked D in the plan. (Plate I.) On obtaining entrance to this chamber or cell, it proved, like those subsequently opened, to be constructed with walls gradually converging on all sides towards the top, and to measure five feet nine inches in length from north to south, four feet eight inches in breadth, and five feet six inches in height. On the west side of the chamber, the small passage, marked h, was observed appearing to communicate with another apartment, but it was so blocked up with stones and rubbish, that excavation had to be resumed from the exterior. After working for upwards of an hour, the large stone, marked m, was reached, and on removing it an entrance was effected into the central chamber A. This was about three-fourths filled with stones and rubbish, heaped up under the opening marked i, on digging into which bones and teeth of the horse, cow, sheep, boar, &c., were discovered mixed with the rubbish, and also some which were supposed to be those of deer, but not a vestige of human bones.

Archaeological Journal Volume 20 Section III. These buildings are numerous in Orkney, and are generally in some prominent place, as the brow of a hill—the sea-side—an islet by the margin of a lake—or other similar locality. Human skeletons have been found in one or two of them, but it has generally been supposed that they had been deposited there long after the building had become ruinous. I found in the Picts'-house on Wideford-hill [Map], which was in excellent preservation, great quantities of the bones of horse, ox, swine, and sheep. The bones of the larger animals lay lowest amongst the stones and earth with which the central chamber was more than half filled. I selected a jaw-bone from a quantity of bones which lay in a passage leading from the central chamber to one of the cells, and sent it to Mr. Stuart, the secretary of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, by whom it was submitted to the late Professor Quekett of London, who pronounced it to be a relic of the species bos longifrons. The discovery of the remains of an animal which is believed to have become extinct in Britain about the time of the Roman invasion, shows the importance of preserving all animal remains which may be found in the aboriginal structures, and is at the same time an evidence of the antiquity of the buildings in which such remains are discovered. The bones were deposited in the mouths of the passages leading to the cells, as if the animals had been intended to be offerings to the deities, or to the manes of the departed. The accompanying plan and section of a Picts'-house in the Island of Eday [Vinquoy Chambered Cairn [Map]], which was opened in 1857 by Robert J. Hebden, Esq., of Eday, and James Farrer, Esq., M.P., will convey a general idea of those interesting structures. The following are the measurements of the various chambers in this Picts'-house;—

A. The central chamber, 6 ft 9 in. by 5 ft.; height 10 ft.

B. 5 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 3 in.; height 5 ft.; the length of the passage of approach to this chamber from the central one is about 3 ft. 6 in., its width about 1 ft. 9 in.

C. 5 ft. by 4 ft.; height 6 ft.; the width of the passage of approach, 1 ft. 3 in.

D. 4 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft.

E. 5 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft.

F. Entrance passage, 12 ft. in length, 1 ft. 8 in. in width, 3 ft. in height. It was continued beyond the encircling WALL, G G