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On the Fringe of Neolithic Europe: Excavation of a Chambered Cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney

by Anna Ritchie

The tiny Holm of Papa Westray lies in the far north of the Orkney Islands on the Atlantic fringe of Neolithic Europe. It is home to two chambered cairns built as burial monuments around five thousand years ago. One of them is the subject of this book, excavated first in the nineteenth century and again in a more scientific manner in the 1980s, and it has shed surprising light on life, death and ritual in Neolithic times. A small shrine was built first and this was later incorporated into a regular burial chamber with stalled compartments, the whole enclosed within a rectangular stone cairn. Bones from at least eight or nine people were found within the tomb, and the remains of newborn lambs show that sheep had access to the stalled chamber before it was sealed as a final act. 152p b/w illus (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2009)

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