Unstan (or Onstan, or Onston) is a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
located about north-east of
Stromness
Stromness (, non, Straumnes; nrn, Stromnes) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital.
E ...
on
Mainland, Orkney
The Mainland, also known as Hrossey and Pomona, is the main island of Orkney, Scotland. Both of Orkney's burghs, Kirkwall and Stromness, lie on the island, which is also the heart of Orkney's ferry and air connections.
Seventy-five per cent of ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The tomb was built on a promontory that extends into the
Loch of Stenness
The Loch of Stenness is a large brackish loch on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland and is named for the parish of Stenness. It is northeast of the town of Stromness, lies immediately to the south of the Loch of Harray and is close to the World Herita ...
near the settlement of Howe. Unstan is notable as an atypical hybrid of the two main types of chambered cairn found in
Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, and as the location of the first discovery of a type of pottery that now bears the name of the tomb. The site is in the care of
Historic Environment Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...
as a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Description
The tomb is a particularly well preserved, and somewhat unusual, example of an
Orkney–Cromarty chambered cairn. Tombs of this type are often referred to as "stalled" cairns due to their distinctive internal structure. Stalled cairns have a central passageway flanked by a series of paired transverse stones that separate the side spaces into compartments that reminded early investigators of horse stalls. The earliest versions of this tomb type are found in
Caithness
Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.
Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...
, they typically consist of no more than four stalled compartments. In Orkney, the tombs became increasingly elaborate; the number of compartments reached a maximum of fourteen at the Knowe of Ramsay on
Rousay
Rousay (, sco, Rousee; non, Hrólfsey meaning Rolf's Island) is a small, hilly island about north of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. It has been nicknamed "Egypt of the north", due to its archaeological diversit ...
. Unstan is a more modest example of the form with five chambers flanking a passageway in length. Like most tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone, replaced by a modern concrete dome that protects the site. The remaining walls rise to a height of almost , and consist primarily of thin stacked slabs of local
flagstone
Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other con ...
that come from the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...
.
Unstan is an atypical example of the Orkney–Cromarty chambered cairn in several respects. First, the
barrow, or burial mound, that covered the tomb is circular, in diameter, rather than the usual oblong or rectangular form. Second, the barrow is round because the tomb contains a side chamber, a feature more common in the
Maeshowe
Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; non, Orkhaugr) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered ca ...
-type tombs. Third, the main chamber does not open at the end of the passageway, like typical stalled tombs, but along one long side. Again, this is more characteristic of the Maeshowe tombs. The barrow is made of two or three concentric rows of stonework.
Evidence from nearby tombs suggests that they, and Unstan, were built sometime between 3400 and 2800 BC.
Unstan is also notable in that the first discovery of a distinctive style of pottery was made here in 1884. These pots are the type examples of what has come to be known as
Unstan ware
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, a type ...
. Unstan ware typically consists of elegant shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, created using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version consists of undecorated, round-bottomed bowls. Some of the bowls had bits of volcanic rock included in the clay to make them stronger. After firing, bone tools were used to burnish the surfaces to make them shiny and impermeable. Parts of twenty to thirty bowls were found in the tomb, many of them were Unstan ware. Most of the bowls were shattered or incomplete; this is common in chambered cairns and suggests that the vessels were intentionally broken for inclusion with the dead. These bowls were not newly created for use in the tomb – they had clearly seen prior use – as some of the sherds, for example, had impressions of barley grains. A number of fragments were found in a shallow hollow in the clay floor – a pattern seen in other tombs. Several of the reconstructed vessels are in the
National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
.
Human remains were found in Unstan – there were two crouched skeletons in the side cell, several more in the main compartment, and a number of bones were scattered throughout the rest of the tomb. Animal bones and charcoal were found as well.
It is possible that Unstan was in use well into the second millennium BC; an
arrowhead
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
was discovered in the tomb that is characteristic of the
Beaker People
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from ar ...
who lived from the Late Neolithic into the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
. Moreover, burials in the crouched position were not practiced in the Neolithic.
The current concrete dome dates to the 1930s.
Toponymy
The second element of the name, ''stan'', or ''ston'', comes from a particularly
Orcadian
Orcadians, also known as Orkneymen, are an ethnic group native to the Orkney Islands, who speak an Orcadian dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history, culture and ancestry. Speaking Norn, a native North G ...
version of the
Norse word ' which means a farm settlement.
See also
*
Midhowe Chambered Cairn
Midhowe Chambered Cairn is a large Neolithic chambered cairn located on the south shore of the island of Rousay, Orkney, Scotland. The name "Midhowe" comes from the Iron Age broch known as Midhowe Broch, that lies just west of the tomb. The ...
*
Unstan ware
Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim, a type ...
*
Ring of Brodgar
The Ring of Brodgar (or Brogar, or Ring o' Brodgar) is a Neolithic henge and stone circle about 6 miles north-east of Stromness on Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Heart ...
*
Standing Stones of Stenness
The Standing Stones of Stenness is a Neolithic monument five miles northeast of Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, Scotland. This may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles. Various traditions associated with the stones survived into ...
*
Maeshowe
Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; non, Orkhaugr) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered ca ...
*
Prehistoric Orkney
Prehistoric Orkney refers only to the prehistory of the Orkney archipelago of Scotland that begins with human occupation. (The islands’ history before human occupation is part of the geology of Scotland.) Although some records referring to ...
*
Timeline of prehistoric Scotland
This timeline of prehistoric Scotland is a chronologically ordered list of important archaeological sites in Scotland and of major events affecting Scotland's human inhabitants and culture during the prehistoric period. The period of prehistory ...
*
Oldest buildings in the United Kingdom
This article lists the oldest extant freestanding buildings in the United Kingdom. In order to qualify for the list a structure must:
* be a recognisable building
* either incorporate features of building work from the claimed date to at least ...
References
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Footnotes
External links
*Historic Environment Scotland
Visitor guide
{{Prehistoric Orkney
4th-millennium BC architecture in Scotland
Archaeological sites in Orkney
Prehistoric Orkney
Buildings and structures in Orkney
World Heritage Sites in Scotland
Neolithic settlements
Megalithic monuments in Scotland
Historic Scotland properties in Orkney
Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Orkney
Neolithic Scotland
Chambered cairns in Scotland
Mainland, Orkney