Midhowe Chambered Cairn
Encyclopedia
Midhowe is a large Neolithic
chambered cairn
located on the south shore of the island of Rousay
, Orkney, Scotland
. The name "Midhowe" comes from the spectacular Bronze Age
broch
that lies just west of the tomb. The broch
got its name from the fact that it's the middle of three such structures that lie grouped within 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) of each other and Howe from the Old Norse
word haugr meaning mound or barrow. Together, the broch
and chambered cairn
form part of a large complex of ancient structures on the shore of Eynhallow Sound
separating Rousay
from Mainland, Orkney.
type of chambered cairn
. Tombs of this type are often referred to as "stalled" cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The earliest versions of this tomb type are found in Caithness
, they typically consist of no more than four stalled compartments. In Orkney, the tombs became more elaborate; Midhowe is an extreme example of the form with twelve chambers flanking a passageway 23.6 metres (77.4 ft) in length. The transverse stones rise to a height of 2 metres (6.6 ft) and the walls still rise to a height of 2.5 metres (8.2 ft). Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern hangar-like structure that protects the site. The nature of the original roof is unclear; it may have consisted of flat slabs of flagstone at a height of 3 metres (9.8 ft) or more. Alternatively, it may have been vaulted like Maeshowe
to a height of as much as 5 metres (16.4 ft). The cairn appears to have been intentionally filled with debris after hundreds of years of usage beginning early in the third millennium BC.
The size and complexity of the interior of the cairn must have exerted a powerful influence on those entering it. Castleden describes it this way:
The cairn was originally protected by an oval barrow
33 metres (108.3 ft) long and 13 metres (42.7 ft) wide. The barrow
is supported by three concentric stone casing walls that appear to have overlapped each other to form a step-like structure. Some of the stones in the walls are laid at angles to each other, forming decorative patterns that echo the incised rims found on some Unstan ware
bowls, examples of which were found in the tomb. These patterns are clearly part of the architectural design of the walls, meant to be seen. Unstan ware
is named after the Unstan Chambered Cairn
on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands
. Unstan, where the style of pottery was first found in 1884, is a fine example of a stalled chambered tomb, encased like Midhowe in a circular barrow
. Unstan ware
is mostly found in tombs, specifically tombs of the Orkney-Cromarty type. These include the so-called Tomb of the Eagles
at Isbister on South Ronaldsay
, and Taversoe Tuick and Knowe of Yarso on Rousay
.
Midhowe is distinguished from other tombs of its type by having a horned forecourt adjacent to the long axis of the barrow
on the north side. Extension of the curvature of the surviving "horns" of the structure suggests an original diameter of as much as 70 metres (229.7 ft), indicating a ceremonial space capable of holding hundreds of people.
Midhowe represents an example of collective burial common to the Orkney-Cromarty
tombs. The remains of at least 25 individuals were discovered in the tomb. Seven of the twelve chambers have side shelves- the bodies were found in groups of two to four on six of the shelves. Several of the skeletons were in a crouched position on the shelves, with their backs to the side wall and heads resting against the supporting pillars. Other groups of bones had been heaped into the centers of the shelves or swept under them, suggesting that earlier burials had been moved to accommodate later ones. In a few cases only the skulls were present, in one instance the long bones had been piled together with the skull placed on top.
Bones from a variety of animals were found as well. These include ox, sheep, skua, cormorant, buzzard, eagle, gannet, and carrion-crow. Fish bones from bream and wrasse were also present. Bream are not found this far north today, suggesting that the waters around Orkney during the Neolithic
must have been several degrees warmer than today.
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
chambered cairn
Chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
located on the south shore of the island of Rousay
Rousay
Rousay is a small, hilly island about north of Orkney's Mainland, off the north coast of Scotland, and has been nicknamed "the Egypt of the north", due to its tremendous archaeological diversity and importance....
, Orkney, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The name "Midhowe" comes from the spectacular Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
that lies just west of the tomb. The broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
got its name from the fact that it's the middle of three such structures that lie grouped within 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) of each other and Howe from the Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
word haugr meaning mound or barrow. Together, the broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
and chambered cairn
Chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
form part of a large complex of ancient structures on the shore of Eynhallow Sound
Eynhallow Sound
Eynhallow Sound is a seaway lying between Mainland Orkney and the island of Rousay in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The tidal indraught is "scarcely felt beyond a line joining Costa Head and the Reef of Quendale". An Iron Age broch, Gurness, has a strategic outlook over the Eynhallow Sound....
separating Rousay
Rousay
Rousay is a small, hilly island about north of Orkney's Mainland, off the north coast of Scotland, and has been nicknamed "the Egypt of the north", due to its tremendous archaeological diversity and importance....
from Mainland, Orkney.
Tomb Description
The tomb is a particularly well preserved example of the Orkney-CromartyCromarty
The Royal Burgh of Cromarty is a burgh in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.-History:It was previously the county town of the former county of Cromartyshire...
type of chambered cairn
Chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
. Tombs of this type are often referred to as "stalled" cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The earliest versions of this tomb type are found in Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
, they typically consist of no more than four stalled compartments. In Orkney, the tombs became more elaborate; Midhowe is an extreme example of the form with twelve chambers flanking a passageway 23.6 metres (77.4 ft) in length. The transverse stones rise to a height of 2 metres (6.6 ft) and the walls still rise to a height of 2.5 metres (8.2 ft). Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern hangar-like structure that protects the site. The nature of the original roof is unclear; it may have consisted of flat slabs of flagstone at a height of 3 metres (9.8 ft) or more. Alternatively, it may have been vaulted like Maeshowe
Maeshowe
Maeshowe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The monuments around Maeshowe, including Skara Brae, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney...
to a height of as much as 5 metres (16.4 ft). The cairn appears to have been intentionally filled with debris after hundreds of years of usage beginning early in the third millennium BC.
The size and complexity of the interior of the cairn must have exerted a powerful influence on those entering it. Castleden describes it this way:
Walking into the monument is a little like walking into a miniature church, the straight central aisle flanked on each side by pillar-like slabs and culminating in a shrine-like end compartment at the western end. The stalls or bays on the north side of the chamber were fitted with low stone benches or shelves on which the bones of ancestors were laid out.
The cairn was originally protected by an oval barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
33 metres (108.3 ft) long and 13 metres (42.7 ft) wide. The barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
is supported by three concentric stone casing walls that appear to have overlapped each other to form a step-like structure. Some of the stones in the walls are laid at angles to each other, forming decorative patterns that echo the incised rims found on some Unstan ware
Unstan ware
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version...
bowls, examples of which were found in the tomb. These patterns are clearly part of the architectural design of the walls, meant to be seen. Unstan ware
Unstan ware
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version...
is named after the Unstan Chambered Cairn
Unstan Chambered Cairn
Unstan is a Neolithic chambered cairn located on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The tomb was built on a promontory that extends into the Loch of Stenness near the settlement of Howe and the town of Stromness...
on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
. Unstan, where the style of pottery was first found in 1884, is a fine example of a stalled chambered tomb, encased like Midhowe in a circular barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
. Unstan ware
Unstan ware
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version...
is mostly found in tombs, specifically tombs of the Orkney-Cromarty type. These include the so-called Tomb of the Eagles
Tomb of the Eagles
Located on at cliff edge at Isbister on South Ronaldsay in Orkney, Scotland, the Tomb of the Eagles is a Neolithic chambered tomb. First explored by Ronald Simison in 1958, he conducted his own excavations at the site in 1976...
at Isbister on South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay
South Ronaldsay is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. It is linked to the Orkney Mainland by the Churchill Barriers, running via Burray, Glimps Holm and Lamb Holm.-Geography and geology:...
, and Taversoe Tuick and Knowe of Yarso on Rousay
Rousay
Rousay is a small, hilly island about north of Orkney's Mainland, off the north coast of Scotland, and has been nicknamed "the Egypt of the north", due to its tremendous archaeological diversity and importance....
.
Midhowe is distinguished from other tombs of its type by having a horned forecourt adjacent to the long axis of the barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
on the north side. Extension of the curvature of the surviving "horns" of the structure suggests an original diameter of as much as 70 metres (229.7 ft), indicating a ceremonial space capable of holding hundreds of people.
Midhowe represents an example of collective burial common to the Orkney-Cromarty
Cromarty
The Royal Burgh of Cromarty is a burgh in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.-History:It was previously the county town of the former county of Cromartyshire...
tombs. The remains of at least 25 individuals were discovered in the tomb. Seven of the twelve chambers have side shelves- the bodies were found in groups of two to four on six of the shelves. Several of the skeletons were in a crouched position on the shelves, with their backs to the side wall and heads resting against the supporting pillars. Other groups of bones had been heaped into the centers of the shelves or swept under them, suggesting that earlier burials had been moved to accommodate later ones. In a few cases only the skulls were present, in one instance the long bones had been piled together with the skull placed on top.
Bones from a variety of animals were found as well. These include ox, sheep, skua, cormorant, buzzard, eagle, gannet, and carrion-crow. Fish bones from bream and wrasse were also present. Bream are not found this far north today, suggesting that the waters around Orkney during the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
must have been several degrees warmer than today.
See also
- Ring of BrodgarRing of BrodgarThe Ring of Brodgar is a Neolithic henge and stone circle on the Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland...
- Standing Stones of Stenness
- MaeshoweMaeshoweMaeshowe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The monuments around Maeshowe, including Skara Brae, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney...
- Prehistoric OrkneyPrehistoric OrkneyPrehistoric Orkney refers to a period in the human occupation of the Orkney archipelago of Scotland that was the latter part of these islands' prehistory. The period of prehistory prior to occupation by the genus Homo is part of the geology of Scotland...
- Timeline of prehistoric ScotlandTimeline of prehistoric ScotlandThis timeline of prehistoric Scotland is a chronologically ordered list of important archaeological sites in Scotland and of major events affecting Scotland's human inhabitants and culture during the prehistoric period. The period of prehistory prior to occupation by the genus Homo is part of the...