History Scotland Magazine: Extensive Burial Ground Discovered Knowe of Skea, Westray, Orkney

Extensive Burial Ground Discovered
Knowe of Skea, Westray, Orkney

Excavations were carried out at Knowe of Skea, Westray, Orkney, over a five week period during 2002, the third season of work on site.

The site is a large mound on a small eroding tidal islet located off the south west tip of the Island of Westray. Work has taken place in response to the threat from coastal erosion, in an attempt to recover information before the remains become too badly degraded to yield archaeological information. The site is extremely exposed and during winter storms the sea washes right over it.Work to date has uncovered a very well preserved stone-built structure last occupied around the 7th-8th century AD ('Pictish'/ Late Iron Age). Finds from this latest period of occupation include a complete double sided composite bone comb and a group of worked bone objects associated with weaving. A great many questions about the site remain unanswered. For example, there is a suggestion that the building may in fact be very much older than the Iron Age - possibly Neolithic - and that it was reused in the Later Iron Age period.

The walls of the building survive to at least 1m high and are carefully built using quarried stone. They are extraordinarily thick - up to 6m in places. More detailed investigation of the walls during this year's season of work revealed that the exterior face of the building had beenrefaced on at least four different occasions- and in relatively quick succession. From the exterior, the building is roughly circular in plan - but the interior is oval or sub-rectangular, with two separate phases of building in evidence. The earliest phase of building is very similar in form to Neolithic buildings excavated in Orkney, such as at Barnhouse on Mainland.

It is unclear, as yet, if the structure was originally built as a house or a tomb. If a house, the location of the site is puzzling because it lies in such an exposed location with the nearest land suitable for cultivation some 1.5 km away. In favour of it being a tomb is the fact that the promontory which lies adjacent to the site is occupied by several burial cairns. Thus far, no evidence of any early domestic period of use has been found. The purpose for which the building was used during the later Iron Age is not readily apparent either. While there were at least two successive stone hearths constructed within the building at this time, there has been a distinct lack of the types of find usually associated with domestic sites, such as pottery and stone tools. It is possible that the house was never used for habitation but was a special place, possibly associated with burial rites.

Outside the central building, work on a very small part of the surface of the mound has revealed several more buildings. These were constructed into rubble emanating from the gradual collapse of the central structure and therefore postdate it. In this area the remains of at least eight complete human burials were also found. In addition, numerous disarticulated human bones indicate the probable existence of further burials ranged around the full circuit of the central building.

It is estimated that the remains so far encountered are part of a more extensive cemetery and that many more burials lie within unexcavated and eroding parts of the mound.

Specialist analysis is yet to be carried out on these remains, however, preliminary results suggests that individuals of both sexes and a wide age range are represented. One burial appears to be that of an elderly female with rheumatism. There is some variation in the burial rite but most would appear to have been placed in the grave lying on one side with their knees drawn tightly up towards the chest. Articulated animal bone found close to these burials may be the remains of joints of meat which had been placed alongside the deceased as grave goods. Fragments of two Late Iron Age bone combs were found close to a group of disturbed human bone and may represent personal items buried with the deceased. The date of the burials has not yet been verified through radiocarbon dating, but based on present evidence, they would appear also to be Late Iron Age (circa 5th-8th C AD).

The burials represent a rare opportunity to examine a population that lived during the later iron age in Scotland. The remains will help us learn a great deal about the health, diet and lifestyle of the population and to investigate the circumstances and ritual surrounding their burial.

Graeme Wilson

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Work was funded by Historic Scotland, Orkney Archaeological Trust (OAT) and Orkney Islands Council.

The work was carried out by EASE Archaeological Consultants under direction of Graeme Wilson and Hazel Moore.