| Abstract: |
Report of an interdisciplinary project to investigate the origin, chronology, and social function of the Neolithic monuments of Orkney. The main focus of attention was the chambered cairn of Quanterness, with supplementary investigations on Maes Howe, the Ring of Brogar, and the cairns of Rousay. Vegetational studies indicated pastoral and arable activity from Late Neo onwards. One of the six side chambers of the Quanterness cairn was completely excavated revealing quantities of artefacts and disarticulated bone; the cairn structure itself was in use from before 3400 BC to c 2400 BC. Thermoluminescence and 14C dates are presented. Pottery, flint, stone, bone/antler objects and human bones are catalogued and discussed, together with animal remains. A round house was inserted into the cairn side in 1st millennium BC passing through four phases, its pottery showing Jarlshof and Clickhimin links. The implications of the research are considered: cairn burial was not confined to a single segment of society; development of the Orkney Neo runs from Knap of Howar, simple tombs and the lesser stalled cairns with Unstan Ware (3000 BC-2550 bc), through cairns of Quanterness-Quoyness type with evolution towards Grooved Ware (3550 bc-2350 bc), to Maes Howe and the great henges after 2350 bc; there was a shift from small segmented societies to a more centralized authority (10,000 man-hours minimum needed to build Quanterness); more than mere burial places, these cairns were foci for group identity and territorial marking. |
