Rapid response to storm damaged archaeology, Orkneys, Scotland
Early in 2005, an AOC Archaeology Group excavation team was sent to the Orkneys to excavate, record and assess the damage to two important archaeological sites caused by the severe storms of that winter. The storms had revealed what appeared to be burial cists on the island of Sanday at Meur, and a number of skeletons on the foreshore below St Thomas’ Kirk at Hall of Rendall, Mainland Orkney. Orkney Archaeological Trust had informed Historic Scotland of the storm damage, and the decision was taken to send up a team of AOC archaeologists under the terms of their human remains call-off contract with AOC Archaeology Group.
The first site the AOC team examined was at Meur on the island of Sanday. This site was only discovered for the first time after the storms. Together with a team of enthusiastic local volunteers, the AOC archaeologists revealed that the site was not a group of burial cists as originally envisaged but a Bronze Age Burnt Mound. The site comprised a large sunken stone box within the centre of a ‘room’. A stone corbelled water cistern lay immediately beside this. Around these structures lay a mound of burnt stones, which were used for heating water within the central stone tank. The Sanday burnt mound was especially interesting as an overflow drain led from the water cistern, with the implication that the people who used this site had created a system of running fresh water. Together with evidence from the central tank, it appears that the stone tank was used to boil large animal joints in the fresh water gathered from the cistern. Such cooking was probably not done every day but only for communal feasts, provided by different households at different times of the year, in a cycle of reciprocal obligations that made best use of the limited resources of any one land holding and maintained social cohesion within the wider community. The publication of this excavation is due in the Scottish Archaeological Journal later in 2007.
The second site AOC Archaeology Group examined in early 2005 was on the foreshore of St Thomas’ Kirk on Mainland Orkney. Skeletons had been spotted by the local Shorewatch group following coastal erosion caused by the storms. Rescuing these burials before they were destroyed by the sea was important as it would enable unique information to be recovered about the people who lived and worshipped here. Information was also needed about the rest of the site, such as the neighbouring broch, which was also eroding, in order to assess what can be done to save this archaeology from further destruction.
Together with the volunteers of the local Shorewatch group, the AOC excavation team revealed that the sea had destroyed part of the graveyard. However, of the twenty graves exposed during the excavation, only fourteen graves, under imminent threat of coastal erosion, were excavated. The rest were covered up once their location had been established.
As part of the subsequent post-excavation analyses, the skeletons were studied by AOC Archaeology Group’s Osteoarchaeologist. This study revealed that the men and women buried here exhibited pathologies not significantly different from the general population and who had a diet that included meat, dairy produce and cod but no shellfish. The very earliest individual was dated to around the late 12th century and the latest individual no later than the late 14th century. Isotopic analysis confirms that one of the individuals was an incomer, either from Northern Shetland or the Outer Hebrides, which confirms mobility amongst the population in the North Atlantic region during the medieval period. Together with the east/west alignment of the skeletons, with the heads placed at the west end of the grave and their association with a contemporary church, there is little doubt as to the Christian context of these graves.
The graves were arranged in separate and distinct grave plots in a north/south aligned row, clustered particularly close to the east side of St Thomas’ Kirk. Together with the preponderance of relatively old people and especially older men amongst these individuals the evidence may indicate that the individuals represent more senior members of the community, perhaps in terms of status as well as age. Two pottery sherds from the graves are medieval foreign imports, of a type unknown in Orkney or indeed Scotland, but is consistent with the inferred high status of those buried and with the evidence for varied and long distance contacts in ecclesiastical sites in medieval Orkney. A 12th century origin for St Thomas’ Kirk, previously postulated based on the architectural form of St Thomas’ Kirk, is broadly supported by the radiocarbon dates from the burials.
The results of this work will be published in due course.
AOC Excavation Director: Ronan Toolis
AOC Project Manager: John Gooder
Client: Historic Scotland
