A Neolithic multiple burial from Sumburgh, Shetland

Hedges, John W.; Parry, Gordon A

doi:10.3366/gas.1980.7.7.15

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The disarticulated remains of a minimum of 11 adults and 9 juveniles and infants (Walsh et al 2012) were recovered from a stone-lined, sub-rectangular pit, a non-megalithic funerary monument of a type not previously suspected, that was uncovered during the 1977 construction works at Sumburgh Airport, at the southern tip of the archipelago (Hedges & Parry 1980) (Figure 2). They are the only skeletal remains of the Early Neolithic inhabitants to be recovered from these islands.…”

Section: A Marginal Environment For Early Farmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Montgomery¹,

Beaumont

Jay

et al. 2013

Antiquity

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Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. Analysis of juvenile dentine reveals the consumption of marine foods on an occasional basis. This suggests that marine foods may have been consumed as a crucial supplementary resource in times of famine, when the newly introduced cereal crops failed to cope with the demanding climate of Shetland. This isotopic evidence is consistent with the presence of marine food debris in contemporary middens. The occasional and contingent nature of marine food consumption underlines how, even on Shetland, the shift from marine to terrestrial diet was a key element in the Neolithic transition

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Section: A Marginal Environment For Early Farmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Montgomery¹,

Beaumont

Jay

et al. 2013

Antiquity

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“…The frequency of multiple burials suggests that the expression of relationships between individuals played an important role in how the dead were treated. The large cist containing 23 successive burials, although of a rarer type, is comparable to tombs at Sandfiold on Orkney, Sumburgh on Shetland and Mill Road, West Lothian (Hedges & Parry 1980;Dalland et al 1999;Cook 2000). These tombs span the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, and, in their function, invite comparison with Neolithic chambered cairns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Migration and community in Bronze Age Orkney: innovation and continuity at the Links of Noltland

Moore¹,

Wilson²,

Challanain³

et al. 2022

Antiquity

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The remarkable archaeological record of Neolithic Orkney has ensured that these islands play a prominent role in narratives of European late prehistory, yet knowledge of the subsequent Bronze Age is comparatively poor. The Bronze Age settlement and cemetery at the Links of Noltland, on the island of Westray, offers new evidence, including aDNA, that points to a substantial population replacement between the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Focusing on funerary practice, the authors argue for interconnecting identities centred on household and community, patrilocality and inheritance. The findings prompt a reconsideration of the Orcadian Bronze Age, with wider implications for population movement and the uptake of cultural innovations more widely across prehistoric north-western Europe.

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“…Recent radiocarbon dating of this site places it in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age overlap period at 2615-2310 cal BC (ApSimon 1986, 11) and ApSimon seems to argue, not improbably, that it represents a final influence of the Neolithic megalithic tradition carried over into the Early Bronze Age. Closer yet to Sand Fiold, a large cist, c. 1.2 m by 2 m, found at Sumburgh Airport, Shetland, contained 18 inhumations and has been radiocarbon dated to the period 3000-2500 cal BC (Hedges & Parry 1980). The construction of large cists, therefore, seems to be part of a Neolithic tradition that embraces the Irish Sea Province and extends to Scotland's Northern Isles.…”

Section: Constructional Parallelsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Sand Fiold: the Excavation of an Exceptional Cist in Orkney

Dalland

Barber²,

Carter³

et al. 1999

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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Sand quarrying in 1989 at Sand Fiold, Sandwick, in Orkney resulted in the accidental discovery of a rock-cut chamber containing a cist. Subsequent excavation revealed that this cist had a number of unusual features. The cist slabs had been fitted together exceptionally well and the completed cist was designed to be re-opened by the removal of a side slab. Within the chamber, access was provided to the opening side of the cist and a relieving structure was built over its capstone.The cist contained cremation and inhumation burials that had been inserted on more than one occasion; as its builders intended. A collection of poorly preserved unburnt bone was found to comprise the remains of two individuals: a young adult and a foetus. Two collections of cremated bone, each derived from a single adult, were also present; one in a Food Vessel Urn, the second forming a pile on the floor and containing two burnt antler tines and two unburnt human teeth. The un-urned cremation deposit and the unburnt bones had been covered in mats of plant fibres derived from grass and sedge. The urn had been lined with basketry, also made from grass. Outside the cist, an exceptionally large collection of fuel ash slag (FAS), derived from a cremation pyre, had been deposited between the cist and the wall of the rock-cut chamber.Radiocarbon dates indicate that the site and its contents had a long history. The FAS and the foetus skeleton date to 2900–2500 cal BC. Between 2200 and 1900 cal BC the urned cremation and young adult human bones were inserted and charcoal was deposited in the foundation slots for the back wall of the cist. The deposition of the un-urned cremation was dated to 1000–800 cal BC, some 900 years later, when the urn had already fallen over and broken. At this time, it is assumed that the urn was restored to an upright position and propped with stones, while the stone lid for the urn was reused in the foundation slot of the left-hand side of the cist. Reuse and refurbishment over two millennia seem evidenced in the results from this cist.

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A Neolithic multiple burial from Sumburgh, Shetland

Cited by 10 publications

References 2 publications

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Migration and community in Bronze Age Orkney: innovation and continuity at the Links of Noltland

Sand Fiold: the Excavation of an Exceptional Cist in Orkney

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