An analysis of architectural changes of Orkney-Cromarty multi-period chambered cairns within the northern Scottish Neolithic
Michael J Zambon, UHI Orkney
Introduction
In many regions of Britain, one of the oldest and most visible features still surviving on the landscape are stone-built chambered cairns. They are a record of ancient funerary structures built by early Neolithic farming communities more than five millennia ago and have been of great interest to antiquarians and archaeologists since the 1800s. An architecturally distinct class of megalithic monument, they embody the physical manifestation of building, decay, destruction, and restoration. Inventories of these Neolithic monuments by have demonstrated that there are ‘more than 450 chambered cairns in the north mainland of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Northern Isles’ (Henshall and Ritchie 2001, 3) and eighty-one chambered cairns on the Orkney Islands (Davidson and Henshall 1989).
From the mid-19th century onwards, assumptions by archaeologists of the unitary nature of chambered cairns led to excavations and investigations focused on the monuments’ internal structural features (eg chambers). This approach to burial monuments during the 1960s and 1970s was spearheaded by Henshall’s magnum opera on the chambered tombs of Scotland (1963; 1972) and led to their categorisation into distinctive and separate regional and geographical groups. The classification of chambered tombs into groups with similar chamber structures has resulted in typological systems that effectively describe these monuments. However, an unintended consequence of this typology has been the ‘homogenisation’ of the structures into fixed and rigid categories.
Excavation of some of these monuments in western and northern Scotland indicated they were the result of several distinct structural building phases over time. Evidence for a multi-phase approach to cairn construction has not led to changes in how sites are excavated while interest in the structural sequence of individual cairns has been considered less since the 1970s (Noble 2006). The changing architecture of stone-built chambered cairns has been of interest to some researchers who suggest that it represents changing attitudes by the Neolithic peoples towards ritual and social relations (Cummings 2016; Noble 2006; Fowler 2022) and represent the residue of human action and agency (Richards 2000, 545). Yet archaeological evidence from multi-period or multi-phase sites remains on the periphery of chambered tomb studies.
In addition, the continued focus on the chamber form of the main chambered tomb groups such as the Orkney-Cromarty group has resulted in less inquiry directed towards the ‘ephemeral’ construction of the enveloping cairn. The omission by archaeologists to distinguish between different building techniques used in the construction of material culture such as chambered cairns meant that the potential to uncover any specific meaning embedded in the architecture and view the archaeological evidence as a ‘medium of action’ was minimised (Hodder 1994).
The goal of my dissertation was to conduct a comparative analysis of the types of modifications to the cairn architecture and approaches to the construction of several multi-period Orkney-Cromarty (O-C) chambered cairns within counties of the northern Scottish Neolithic (Orkney, Caithness and Sunderland) and central highlands (Ross-shire and Inverness). Using excavation reports, survey descriptions and case studies of chambered cairns, I aimed to identify any ambiguities, connections, similarities, and differences between the architecture and building sequences of these monuments. The use of concepts such as ‘quick architecture’ and ‘expedient architecture’ to categorise the external structure of these tombs facilitated the consideration of the ‘impermanence’ of these structures (Sharples 1992).
Multi-Period Chambered Tombs
The theory that chambered cairns could have a multi-period sequence in their construction tombs became more accepted by scholars during the 1960s and 1970s and a dominant theme in their excavation and assessment (Henshall and Wallace 1963; Corcoran 1965; Ritchie, Henshall, and McInnes 1970; Henshall 1970; Henshall 1972; Davidson and Henshall 1989; Henshall and Ritchie 1995; Henshall and Ritchie 2001). This phenomenon is most closely associated with the work of Corcoran, whose analysis of chambered cairns revealed ‘evidence of structural additions to existing burial mounds’ (Henshall 1972, 40). While detailed evidence for the multi-period construction of chambered cairns was based on excavations from only four sites in Caithness, Inverness-shire and Wigtown, it was his important excavation at two sites at Mid Gleniron, I and II which led him to suggest that these ‘monuments reached their final form as the result of a number of distinct building phases’ (Lynch 1997, 63).
An example of a multi-period chambered tomb from within the northern Scottish Neolithic is Tulach an T-Sionnaich (CAT 58). This cairn, which is one of a group of three chambered cairns near Loch Calder in Caithness, was pivotal in the development of the concept that some of these monuments had not been built as a unitary structure but had additional phases of construction that altered the external appearance of the original cairn. A key factor in determining the structure’s multi-period nature was the difference in the quality of the construction between the heel-shaped cairn and the addition of a long tail. Multi-phase construction places greater emphasis on changes to the external structure of these monuments that were not bound by chronological time but may have occurred in response to the introduction of new ideas to tomb construction.
Methodology and Results
To generate a list of Orkney-Cromarty type multi-phase chambered cairns within counties of the northern Scottish Neolithic (Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland, Inverness, and Ross-shire), descriptions of all known and documented tombs in published inventories were assessed for reference to a sequence of cairn development. The type of modification to the cairn architecture was assessed as either an alteration, an enlargement or a combination of both. Applying Henshall’s use of alteration or enlargement to discuss the complexity of these structures, evidence for each OC chambered cairn was categorised using these descriptors and simplified plans of the cairn to document general changes in their overall appearance and architecture.
An alteration was designated if the external shape of cairn had been changed or had enclosed another structure or if the chamber not aligned with the main axis of the chamber. Enlargement of the cairn was assigned if there has been a change to the overall size of the cairn through the construction of additional features or increases in diameter of the original structure. Data from the analysis of multi-period chambered cairns from the Scottish highland counties of Ross-shire and Inverness are included in general discussions of these monuments. The aim of the dissertation was to produce generalisable findings through the ‘re-excavation’ of excavation reports and inventories to ‘identify ambiguities, connections, similarities and differences that suggest that monuments can never be as simple as we pretend’ (Brophy 2005, 9).
Analysis of the architecture of some multi-period chambered cairns from the central highlands (n=14) and northern Scotland (n=34) suggests there are distinct regional differences in the types of modifications and alterations to the final form of some tombs as well as to approaches to building techniques associated with the architecture of the enveloping cairn. In terms of modifications and alterations to the final architecture of the chambered cairn, the predominant approach to changes in the enveloping cairn in the central highlands has been on the enlargement of the monument, while in the northern Scotland, excluding the Orkney Archipelago, has been on the alteration of the architecture through the addition of hornworks, forecourts, façades and long cairns to an earlier structure. Interestingly, within the Neolithic landscape of present-day Caithness and Sutherland, the distribution of multi-period chambered cairns and their accompanying changes suggests that there are two geographical areas or ‘nodal areas’ where a greater number of these changes occur.
Discussion
What do these multi-period sites have to say about the permanence and ‘ritual efficacy’ of Neolithic architecture and the quality of construction? In his examination of chambered cairns, Corcorran (1972) briefly used the term ‘ritual efficacy’ in association with these structures but did not elaborate on its relationship to the construction and architecture of some Neolithic monuments. In my dissertation, I suggested that the builders of tombs used building techniques that were more efficacious, and therefore less time-consuming to support changes to social and cultural practices associated with these monuments. This is apparent in the central highlands of Scotland where the enlargement of the cairn using kerb stones and loose stones to envelop the cairn may have been a more expedient approach to altering the architecture of the monument while minimising disruption to the ritual use of the structure.
The concept of ritual efficacy provides insights into the intent and aesthetic ethos of these prehistoric builders and their concept and approach to permanence. The enlargement of the diameter of the chambered cairn to envelop the core-cairn is an approach to construction that is therefore highly efficacious in its building but from an aesthetic point of view, aesthetics would not be a major factor. The archaeological evidence at that many of these chambered cairns were covered in loose stones of various sizes and shapes, much of which has been robbed, suggests that intent of these modifications was to create a structure sufficient to support religious practices for a specific length of time. In contrast, the alterations of chambered cairns in the northern Scottish Neolithic suggests a shift away from a focus on enlargement of the enveloping cairn in the central highlands and hence, a different approach to aesthetics, intent, and efficacy.
The addition of hornworks, forecourts and long cairns to an earlier structure suggests that the builders of these structures held an intent to construction and aesthetics that was different from builders in Inverness and Ross-shire. The building techniques used have a discernible beginning and end and are not arbitrary and isolated. These additions focused on providing spaces and a logical connection to the mortuary context. The long-horned cairns of Sutherland and Caithness follow a traditional pattern of a round cairn placed at the proximal and distal end of the cairn with hornworks and forecourts, thereby becoming distinguished by their canonical form across the landscape. These phases represent the continuous development and movement of ideas to create an overall structure that has been shaped and influenced by a variety of changes in social practices and reflect how these monuments were used and perceived by the people of the Neolithic. Given the lower-quality construction of several tombs, these architectural modifications were less about monumentality, and more about supporting changes in social and religious processes pertaining to death and burial.
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