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<< Our Photo Pages >> Banks Chambered Tomb - Chambered Cairn in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 30 April 2012  Page Views: 31075

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Banks Chambered Tomb Alternative Name: Tomb of the Otters
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Chambered Cairn
 Nearest Village: Burwick
Map Ref: ND45808339
Latitude: 58.734772N  Longitude: 2.937914W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 5 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

coin whese001 drolaf would like to visit

bettynesbitt visited on 3rd Jul 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5 An amazing site easy access. Well set up by Mr Mowatt. Just around the corner to the Tomb of the Eagles. Members of Bidston Community Archaeology had a fieldtrip to Orkney with the intention of seeing Tomb of the Eagles and we passed the sign (can't miss it) to Banks Chambered Tomb not realising this Tombs importance I returned the next week and was stunned by its significance.

paulinelen visited on 5th Apr 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5 a work in progress and rather wet underfoot but amazing - still doing the £5 guided tour and its a site not to be missed - food was good in the bistro too

Andy B Redfun have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4 Ambience: 5 Access: 5

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Western chamber repaired. not yet excavated to floor level, as can be seen by height of deposits by LH side of pasage (Vote or comment on this photo)
The site containing human remains was uncovered by a local man while using a mechanical digger to landscape his garden at Banks on the island of South Ronaldsay.

See the comments below for updates. Hamish Mowatt dug a hole close to an 8ft-long stone in the garden, next to the Skerries Bistro, which is run by his fiancee Carole Fletcher, and discovered a chamber inside with about 9in of water lying on the bottom.

He managed to get an underwater camera into the hole and saw what appeared to be the two eyesockets of a skull. The couple contacted Julie Gibson, an archaeologist with Orkney Islands Council, who said the site was a Stone Age chambered tomb.

A rescue excavation was undertaken by the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, sponsored by Orkney Islands Council and Historic Scotland.

It is thought that the structure might contain three chambers, one of which has been cut down into rock and is capped by a massive flat stone. At least three skulls have been seen, and possibly pottery, which need to be recovered before the water inside the structure destroys them. Archaeologists say it is an exciting find in itself and also because it is near the Isbister Chambered Cairn, or Tomb of the Eagles, on the south-eastern tip of South Ronaldsay.

This cairn contains a cache of tools, including axe heads and a knife, as well as human remains in a chamber.

Ms Gibson said: "Not only do we have the discovery of relatively undisturbed human remains, but we've now got two tombs - the Banks tomb and the nearby Tomb of the Eagles - in close proximity and both found in relatively recent times, where we can see how the dead were being handled in the Neolithic."

Dan Lee, a project officer with the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, said: "We are trying to recover as much information as possible from the tomb. We can see gaps between the top slab and the voids inside, so it's a really exciting prospect for us.

"We will excavate the central passageway and look inside the cells to see the preservation and condition of the human remains. We may encounter single burials or a whole jumble of bones as over 5,000 years ago they used to bury the dead communally. So we don't know what we might find in there, but it should be very interesting."

Isbister Chambered Cairn is estimated to have been built around 3,000 BC, and used for approximately 800 years.
It is just over 11ft high and consists of a rectangular main chamber, divided into stalls and side cells.

Talons from the white-tailed sea eagle and the remains of up to 20 birds were found inside the tomb - the inspiration for it's popular name. Found alongside human remains, it is believed the birds, once common in Orkney, were perhaps a totem of the people who built the tomb.

In all, 16,000 human bones were found at the site, as well as 725 from birds, mainly sea eagles. Recent dating techniques suggest the birds died around 2450-2050 BC, up to 1,000 years after the building of the tomb.

This would confirm growing evidence that the Neolithic tombs of Orkney remained in use for many generations.

Source: The Scotsman (Archive Link)


Official Web Site: www.bankschamberedtomb.co.uk
Current Opening: April to September
11:00 - 17:00 (last tour 16:00)
Admission Charge
Please call 01856 831605 if you would like any further information.

Note: Dig discovers a possible sixth chamber in Banks chambered tomb
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Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by paulinelen : Looking down the passage away from the 'otter' end, you can see the web camera in the other end chamber - apparently this can be accessed on line. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by Andy B : The whole skull just inside the door of the East Cell. Photo copyright: ORCA (Vote or comment on this photo)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : back and LH side of of W chamber (Vote or comment on this photo)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Entrance passage - there appears to be a slight kink or bend in the right-hand wall. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : LH side of entrance passage.

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : RH side of entrance passage with man in central passage.

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Looking along central passage from far right chamber to E chamber.

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Another cell (? S2, I dont think it's been named yet)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : View of W chamber along central passage [I hope I,ve not confused W with E !].

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : corner of W chamber with original roof showing

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : unexplored, the latest found cell was under the lintel of the entrance passage

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : potsherd

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by paulinelen : another of the excavated chambers. I was told that two skulls have been taken for evaluation but a huge number of bones are being held in storage (6 comments)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Looking down on passage and capstone. Regarding capstone far third is that the digger hit (leaving broad score unlike stone iii), centre taken from beach below, front section buried alongside chamber with less than a ft.sq of corner showing and decorated edge face down (decommissioning ?)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Stone i sample area of marks (2 comments)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : As you come on the final zig-zags to Banks almost bang alongside the road you can't fail to see a big round mound like a mini Maes Howe, but I can see no record of it (could be one long mound with the long low mound right next to it)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Back and floor of a chamber (? N cell).

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Corner of same chamber (? N cell).

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Side wall and floor of same chamber (? N cell).

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : View of E chamber along central passage.

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : View across entrance to cell (? S2)

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Entrance supports in detail (? S2).

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : Unexplored S1 cell opposite entrance passage.

Banks Chambered Tomb
Banks Chambered Tomb submitted by howar : box of sherds with large ones on right-hand side fitting together

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 574m NE 43° Tomb of the Eagles Museum Museum (ND4619783807)
 975m NE 42° Isbister: Bronze Age House* Ancient Village or Settlement (ND46468411)
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 11.1km NNW 342° Little Howe of Hoxa* Ancient Village or Settlement (ND4243694026)
 11.1km NNW 342° Little Howe of Hoxa* Ancient Village or Settlement (ND42439403)
 12.2km NNE 12° Kyelittle* Broch or Nuraghe (ND485953)
 12.8km WNW 296° Cantick Head Bowl Barrow Round Barrow(s) (ND34318915)
 13.1km WNW 297° Outer Green Hill Broch Chambered Cairn (ND34258958)
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Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

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"Banks Chambered Tomb" | Login/Create an Account | 25 News and Comments
  
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by drolaf on Saturday, 08 July 2023
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the approach road is open for traffic on days the bistro is open, saturday sunday monday. i don't know if that means the visitor centre is open too. i'd be inclined to contact before trying to visit , to avoid a lot of pointless driving and walking
https://tomboftheotters.co.uk/findus
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Banks Chambered Tomb - Ancient DNA reveals two adults in the tomb had Hepatitis B by Andy B on Thursday, 10 May 2018
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February 2018 - Ancient DNA reveals two adult individuals had Hepatitis B virus which may have caused their deaths.

ANCIENT DNA

Ancient DNA is being carried out by the University of Copenhagen.

The samples are part of hundreds of samples throughout Europe.

Meeting with University of Copenhagen on 22.12.16 to update progression of Ancient DNA and have been told that the initial analysis done of 6 of the 17 samples show quality is excellent. These 6 samples are remarkably well preserved with more than 30%efficiency. This is very rare to find with material this old.

Preliminary DNA analysis suggests that the ancient individuals in the tomb have genetic variants from the Middle East which is typical for the Neolithic period. These “Middle Eastern genes” are clearly observed in the bones. They are very different from the gene-variants observed in early Mesolithic time periods and likewise the skeletons do not possess gene-variants that came into Europe in the later Bronze Age Period. So, in short, the tomb is full of Neolithic farmers! It shows that Stone Age farmer genes through generations of migrations at some point also made it to Orkney. This is an important observation.

February 2018 - recent results show two adult individuals had Hepatitis B virus which may have caused their deaths.

Analysis is continuing during 2018 and more information will be summarised.

Source:
http://www.bankschamberedtomb.co.uk/ancient-dna/4592705230
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by Andy B on Monday, 23 October 2017
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Canmore: https://canmore.org.uk/site/311263
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by howar on Friday, 03 January 2014
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C14 dates give start of 3344BC and end at 3021BC according to article in "The Orcadian" of January 3rd 2014
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by Maybole1599 on Sunday, 09 June 2013
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This site left me with profound feelings of concern. The reconstruction was done in a rush by amateurs and looks it. There has not been a decent period left for a proper archaeological investigation before it has been opened as a visitor attraction. Tomb of the Otters ? Tomb of the cash register more like. This thing could bring Orkney archaeology into disrepute.
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    Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by howar on Thursday, 18 July 2013
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    The way to both totem tombs is now very well signed, but if you take your eye too long off the piece of road they mass at you'll hit a low bump. There is plenty of construction going on at Banks, where there will be a Tomb of the Otter visitor's centre to complement that for Ronnie's Tomb of the Eagles (have heard no news of Wedgie's survey of that landscape). Hamish has put a weatherproof cover over the present tomb entrance and will be installing a low-level lighting system to help folk. All of which takes money my lad, and this is no HS monument. To the south you can see a wartime lookout station [watch your step going that way or you can walk around the coast from nearby Burwick], and here there are several small burial mounds with large stones exposed (Hamish can point out several pieces of interest to prehistorians above the tomb if you don't want to go that far) - unfortunately being with a party I did not get time for photos and the Burwick bus is only for ferry passengers.
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by howar on Wednesday, 16 May 2012
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Thank you Hamish for another wonderful twa hours. A fortnight ago Orcadians went for free, but that weekend the weather was pish poor so I came now. Still a bargain - not much comes from a fiver in life nowadays and he has made vast improvements for folk, like new signage and a fresh tarmac-ed road for starters. In the near future Hamish is looking to have his farmland geofizzed for a day, but needs must he pays for it his sen. Apart from the passage in the tomb is now fully roofed (with contrasting slabs to show the differ). In the rotunda by the fishpond the feed from the tomb is now shown on a peedie widescreen monitor, the output being guidable to boot.
At the inner end of the passage you now have to kneel down and step down backwards - better for most than a trolley but you canna stand up straight once inside.Of course this tomb hasn't been excavated there completelyto the natural, so one day this stae of affairs might change. Since my previous, chance, visit the other chamber has been opened to the public and the one facin the passage too. There isn't much to see as yet of the new chamber he found (contrary to some archaeologists opinions) under the passage itself though it does go back aways, as revealed by penlight. I had had visions of sticking my digital under the lintel and revealing wonders, but at the moment entry is blocked by the original closure material with just mebbe an inch open directly under the lintel ! Of course some would object to poking in a fingerhole (oops, pardon my French, void) even with a camera. However the way one should look at it is photographic record is essential in case something changes before it is professionally looked at, mistakes are made in excavation and (in the present archaeological climate) promised weeks can turn into decades or even never. Unfortunately the completed roof does make the in situ markings less easy to have a proper gander out.
Luckily there are several fine examples of marked slabs in the rotunda exhibition. Here we were then shown some of the organic material recovered to date. Hamish was very pleased withe the deep interest shown in the skeletal remains shown by not only those with a general interest in physiology but also those of a professional bent such as surgeons and dentists. We were allowed to handle very healthy looking teeth and also less healthy bones that showied clear evidence of arthritis [?osteoporosis]. One tooth the size of a small pearl came from a toddler. As well as limbs we saw ribs and the kneebone of a ten or eleven year old. Intersting though these were best were the fragments of skulls, every one of them rather thin apart from a very thick piece that had protected the brain stem. Even so it looked overthick, like four heavy-duty homemade ashtrays welded together. Finally Hamish passed round pieces of shaped pot decorated in various ways. If I heard him correctly there are thought to be two different traditions present. Certainly there are also several kinds of decoration, both by stroke and impression. We agreed with him that the stand-out potsherd was one very dark piece, almost black, that appeared as if someone had made downward slashes with a knife point all the way around the rim - apparently this one is very much a mystery at present, perhaps ?? a one-off.
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by Anonymous on Thursday, 10 May 2012
Wow amazing. If I found something like that in my garden I would want to preserve it as much as possible.
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A sixth chamber in Banks chambered tomb? by Andy B on Monday, 30 April 2012
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The chambered tomb at Banks, in South Ronaldsay, continues to throw up more surprises, including the discovery of what appears to be a sixth chamber within the structure.

Hamish Mowatt originally discovered the tomb by the car park of the Skerries Bistro, at Banks, in 2010.

Speaking to The Orcadian newspaper this week, Mr Mowatt explained that last month he employed the services of a Canadian archaeologist, over a four-week period, to excavate the tomb’s central passageway down to floor level. It was during this work, said Mr Mowatt, that a lintel stone was discovered directly underneath the entrance, leading to what appears to be a further chamber below. This sixth chamber has yet to be excavated.

Read more at
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/2012/04/20/sixth-chamber-in-banks-chambered-tomb/

with thanks to Howar for the link
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by howar on Friday, 30 September 2011
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Appears on tonight's "Digging For Britain", BBC2 9 p.m. It is open to the public until Halloween and there is also a feed from the featured cell nearby. It sits to the side of the Skerries Bistro.
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"Tomb of the Otters" Filled With Stone Age Human Bones by Anonymous on Saturday, 16 July 2011
Thousands of human bones have been found inside a Stone Age tomb on a northern Scottish island, archaeologists say.

The 5,000-year-old burial site, on South Ronaldsay (map) in the Orkney Islands, was accidentally uncovered after a homeowner had leveled a mound in his yard to improve his ocean view. (See Scotland pictures.)

Authorities were alerted to the find in 2010 after a subsequent resident, Hamish Mowatt, guessed at the site's significance.

Mowatt had lowered a camera between the tomb's ceiling of stone slabs and was confronted by a prehistoric skull atop a muddy tangle of bones.

"Nobody had known it was an archaeological site before that," said Julie Gibson, county archaeologist for Orkney.

Partial excavation of the site, called Banks Tomb, has confirmed it as the first undisturbed Neolithic burial to be unearthed in Scotland in some 30 years, Gibson reported in June.

"It's certainly unusual to find one whose contents are so well preserved," the archaeologist said.

"We have got the assorted remains of many, many people who have been deposited in this tomb at different times."

Tomb of the Otters

The underground grave consists of a 4- by 0.75-meter (13- by 2.5-foot) central chamber surrounded by four smaller cells hewn from sandstone bedrock.

Capping the central chamber are large water-worn slabs supported by stone walls and pillars.

At least a thousand skeleton parts belonging to a mix of genders and age groups—including babies—have been found to date.

Layers of silt divide the remains, suggesting the tomb was in use for many generations, Gibson said.

The site has also been dubbed the Tomb of the Otters, because initial excavations revealed prehistoric otter bones and dung amid the human bones.

The animal remains indicate that people visited the burial site only sporadically.

"It suggests the tomb was not entirely sealed and that otters were trampling in and out a lot" throughout the tomb's use, Gibson said.

"For that to occur, you must think there was a gap of a year or two" between grave visits or burials.

Stone Age Not So "Hippy" After All?

So far the excavations, led by the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, have "barely scratched the surface," Gibson added.

The archaeologist is confident that the site will yield important new clues to Neolithic funerary practices.

(Related pictures: "Celtic Princess Tomb Yields Gold, Amber Riches.")

For instance, researchers hope that DNA and isotopic analysis of the human bones will reveal if the dead were closely related and came from the same tight-knit island community or if the burials include newcomers from overseas.

Archaeologists will also investigate whether bones were removed from the tomb for ritualistic purposes.

"This burial is absolutely packed with remains, but with most [other Stone Age tombs], there are actually not that many people in them at the end," Gibson noted.

Meanwhile, recent studies of remains from the nearby Tomb of the Eagles suggest that life among Orkney's Neolithic community of cattle farmers was much less harmonious than previously thought.

At least 20 percent of skulls from that 5,000-year-old site—about a mile from the Tomb of the Otters—show signs of trauma consistent with violent blows from sharp and blunt-edged weapons.

Similar investigations are now being carried out on skeletons from the newfound site.

"Neolithic life has had quite a sort of hippy image," Gibson observed. "But it could be that we are looking at ritualized violence."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110629-ancient-tomb-o

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Re: Banks Tomb is open to the public by howar on Friday, 01 July 2011
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Before getting to the branch road there is the one that passes the post office where you need to go for the key to the church along the road to Burwick that now holds the Ladykirk Stone (a.k.a. St Magnus Boat). The stone has two foot hollows. A sandstone block bearing the 'impression' of a right foot was found in St Andrew's in the area where you find Mine Howe [Stoney Howe], Round Howe and Long Howe so is likely to have been similarly in (St Ninian's) Chapel.
Going by road it is not difficult to miss the turn-off for the Tomb of The Eagles despite the direction marker. Should have one opposite the junction as well. Once on this road you then need to make sure to take the correct piece for the Banks Bistro rather than the Isbister tomb. To the right of the final stretch I see a large conical mound, too large to have been missed before now and too clean-cut to be prehistoric (unlike CANMAP on the newer Canmore Mapping they do mark the Banks tomb). On leaving the bus to my left I saw a section of cliff lit up on the far side of a narrow inlet. At its far end the earth dips down and there is what I take for a mound though my photo only resembles two horns of stripped turf. Decide it would be a good idea to check whether I can publish photos to the Net. A young lady passes me on to the finder, Hamish Mowatt, who has no firm opinion in response to my question.

The mound is said to be low. It actually stands a couple of feet proud of the surrounding land, which is nae bad really. We decide that I shall concentrate on the recently restored chamber that first brought attention to the cairn - you can still see a circle above the top of the rock-cut rear wall where he frst peered in. Last year he found a long heavy slab buried alongside the damaged chamber. All that had been above ground had been a few inches of litch covered corner. On the edge facing into the ground Hamish found a host of markings made in antiquity. An attempt was made to downplay its relationship to the tomb itself - ah, that sacred phrase "in situ" is being applied way too restrictively here, because not only had the stone been buried alongside the disturbed chamber but it also slots into place to complete the capping in the chamber's restoration, not merely somewhere in the vicinity as "not in situ" implies. In April the owner and a Rousay mason affectionately known as Colin 'Bin Laden' followed Orcadian tradition and sensitively restored the damaged chamber. The stones added to complete the passage were keyed into the existing stones at two key points. To roof the chamber they put back the slab hit by the digger and placed the buried stone over the front of the chamber, where the way that it slotted in confirmed the original fit. In between was filled in by a new slab taken from the shore below. Altogether, even using the digger, it took two days to finish the job - from seven in the morning to seven in the evening of the first day and until four in the afternoon of the second day. The final result justifies the decision to ignore the archaeological authorities leave the capstone over the eastern chamber in place, giving the public a proper idea of how the tomb looked - the purpose of a capstone is to stop the whole falling apart. It is interesting to speculate about when the tomb was 'decommissioned' by the removal of that roofing slab, especially in relation to the otter incursions chronology.

The man can tell you all kinds of stuff to do with the locality and his experience of the archaeologist in the field. Only the truth of the tomb comes from him, though a visiting archaeological student will give good tours when he comes to work here. Hamish mentioned that he had more marked stones in a shed. The shed turned out to be a fair sized new wooden rotunda that acted as his peedie interpretation centre, with info around the walls and a camera feed to the chamber at the other end of the long axis. On a table in the middle are three stones full of promise. One is dominated visually by a single vee of large size and broad lines up

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Re: Banks Tomb is open to the public by howar on Saturday, 25 June 2011
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With there being a possible boundary ditch south of the Tomb of the Eagles it is worth noting that an orthostatic slab south of the Banks Tomb is probably a boundary marker (RCAHMS NMRS record no. ND48SE 8 at ND459833, down as post-mediaeval though how they can be certain of one and not the other...). Also in the area Ronald Simison explored two out of six mounds at ND46128326 (ND48SE 4) both with kerbs and one apparently connected by a causeway to one of the others. He also found a kerb cairn at ND46338323 (ND48SE 3).
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    Re: Banks Tomb is open to the public by Runemage on Saturday, 25 June 2011
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    Thanks Howar. I've been wondering about any similarities with the Tomb of the Eagles with them being so close together. It's a fascinating discovery.
    Do you know if there's a sight-line between them?
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Banks Tomb is open to the public by Andy B on Friday, 24 June 2011
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The Banks Tomb is open to the public, from 10am to 5pm daily, until October 31. As well as guided tours, a camera, linked to a monitor, allows visitors to see the interior of one of the rock-cut chambers. Admission costs £5 for adults, while children under 16 are free. The money raised will be used to enclose the tomb at the end of the season.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/2011/05/04/opening-a-window-on-life-and-death-at-the-%E2%80%98tomb-of-the-otters%E2%80%99/
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Charnel house gives up its secret: 1,000 human bones by Andy B on Friday, 24 June 2011
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A STONE AGE burial chamber in Orkney has yielded a gruesome haul of more than 1,000 human bones. The 5,000-year-old human bones - numbering at least 1,000, but possibly as many as 2,000 - were found in just one of the five chambers of the Banks Tomb on South Ronaldsay.

The burial chamber, also known as the Tomb of the Otters because large numbers of otter remains were also found there, was discovered last year by a local farmer working the land. In December, archaeologists recovered the remains of eight people from the tomb.

New research, in which two separate cells in the tomb were investigated, has almost doubled this number to at least 14, though it is very likely this number will end up much higher.

The bones were preserved in several layers on the bottom of the stone-lined cell, or cist, which were divided by layers of silt, which might indicate that the tomb had been used over different periods of time and fell out of use in the intervening years.

Archaeologists now hope that these finds will help them determine how long the tomb was in use. They also hope, through DNA research, to be able to discover more about the people who were buried there.

More in the Scotsman
http://www.scotsman.com/news/Charnel-house-gives-up-its.6786940.jp
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    Re: Charnel house gives up its secret: 1,000 human bones by Anonymous on Tuesday, 28 June 2011
    Fascinating story, but it's really a bit silly describing the find as "gruesome"> Different times, different ways...
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Video diary for season 2 of Banks Tomb dig is now online by Andy B on Saturday, 26 March 2011
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Howar has let us know that the video diary for season 2 of the excavations of Banks neolithic tomb on South Ronaldsay in Orkney are now going online at http://www.youtube.com/user/360Production where they are posting daily video updates
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Multiple burials at Orkney Neolithic site by davidmorgan on Monday, 06 December 2010
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Archaeologists have recovered remains from at least eight people after initial excavation at a Neolithic tomb site in Orkney discovered in October.

A narrow, stone-lined passageway leads to five chambers, two of which have been part-excavated so far.

Fragments of skull and hipbone have been unearthed, some carefully placed in gaps in the stones, suggesting the 5,000-year-old site is undisturbed.

The bones point to a range of ages at death including a child of about six.

It is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to look at a Neolithic community, says Orkney Islands Council's county archaeologist, Julie Gibson.

Orkney contains some of the best preserved Neolithic remains in Europe. Just a few hundred metres from the dig at Banks on Ronaldsay lies the larger Tombs of the Eagles complex where remains of more than 300 people were found.

But the recent find is the first undisturbed burial of a Neolithic community to be discovered in Scotland in three decades.
Burial 'rituals'
sketch of burial complex The arrow marks the entrance to the burial site (Sketch by archaeologist Dan Lee, ORCA)

"Science has moved on a lot in the last few years," says Gibson.

"It is now possible to find out where someone grew up, for instance. And in the case of the Amesbury Archer, found near Stonehenge, it could be seen that he had travelled from the Alps.

"It is by no means certain that all the people in this tomb will have been born here."

There are signs of rituals taking place at the site, for instance the complex was filled with layers of earth suggesting repeated use over a period of time. And large stones were used in the construction and sealing of the chambers.

The site was discovered accidentally during landscaping with a mechanical digger which damaged one end of the complex. The underground site is now subject to flooding and archaeologists are keen to investigate the site while it remains undisturbed.

Initial excavations carried out by the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology have now been completed and there are plans to return to the site in the summer. The dig has been sponsored by Orkney Islands Council and Historic Scotland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11890292

Submitted by coldrum.
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Neolithic tomb found in garden 'extremely significant' by davidmorgan on Monday, 06 December 2010
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WHEN Hamish Mowatt decided to investigate a mysterious mound as he tidied an Orkney garden, he had little idea he would uncover a hoard of bodies that had lain untouched for around 5,000 years.
Archeologists believe the tomb he discovered under a boulder outside a bistro in South Ronaldsay could lead to new insights into how our neolithic ancestors lived and died.

But they face a race against time as water washing in and out of the newly
uncovered tomb could wash away its contents and dissolve any pottery and human remains inside.

Mr Mowatt uncovered the tomb in the garden of Skerries bistro and self catering cottages. He said: "There is a big slab of stone about eight foot by eight foot and I had always wondered what was underneath it. I had a bit of time at the end of the summer and I thought I would take a look."

Mr Mowatt, who runs a boat business, pushed a piece of wire down a hole at the side of the stone and discovered a cavern underneath it. He then pushed down a rod attached to an underwater camera he used for looking at wrecks and discovered a chambered cairn with skulls against the edge.

"I have never really been that interested in archaeology, but when the rod went down into the chamber I could not leave it alone, my blood was pumping when I got a torch. Carole and I looked inside and saw the skull sitting in the murky water.

"It was amazing to think that we were looking at something that had not seen the light of day for 5,000 years. One of the skulls was looking straight at me. It set me back for a moment."

Mr Mowatt and his fiancee Carole Fletcher, who owns the bistro, got in touch with Julie Gibbon, the Orkney county archeologist, who told them they had made a significant find.

"She was really blown away. She said it might be the missing part of the jigsaw - and they could discover a lot by excavating it."

Ms Gibbon said she hoped Historic Scotland would support the excavation of the site - which is around 100 metres away from the Tomb of the Eagles, the chambered cairn where Orkney farmer Ronnie Simison found 348 human skulls in 1958.

Mr Simison and his family run a tourist attraction based around the 3,000 year old tomb - which they believe was a centre for sky burials - where dead bodies were exposed on the cliffs so the sea eagles could carry off their meat.

Seventy talons from sea eagles were found inside the tomb as well as 14 birds.

The archeologist said the new find was extremely significant. She said it could lead to new discoveries about the life and the death of some of Orkney's earliest inhabitants.


http://news.scotsman.com/news/Neolithic-tomb-found-in-garden.6561782.jp

Submitted by coldrum, 09 October 2010.
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Re: Banks Chambered Tomb by Andy B on Thursday, 04 November 2010
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See also Orkneyjar for a very murky sight:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/bankstomb2010.htm

and a video diary at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfeP9nJcX8
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