Taversöe Tuick (or Taversoe Tuick) is a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

burial cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

Rousay Rousay (, ; 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 diversity and importance. Like its ...

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

, Scotland, thought to date from between 4000 and 2500 BCE. The monument includes a rare example of a double-tiered chamber, an upper chamber approached via a passageway and a lower subterranean chamber, originally separate, which can now be reached via a modern ladder from the upper chamber. It is unknown why the chambers were stacked in this way. The monument includes a third miniature chamber slightly downhill of the lower chamber, and linked to it by a small channel which has sometimes been called a 'drain' although that is not believed to be its true purpose. In 1898, excavations uncovered part of the upper chamber, and access was gained to the intact lower chamber. The site was fully excavated in 1937, at which time the upper chamber was covered with a domed roof. Finds included several skeletons, cremated bone, bowls, a mace-head, a flint arrowhead and scrapers, and shale disc beads. The site is 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, visu ...

in the care of

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () 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 merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

, and the monument and chambers are open to the public.

References

External links

Orkneyjar: The Taversoe Tuick, Rousay
Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC 3rd-millennium BC architecture in Scotland Archaeological sites in Orkney Buildings and structures in Orkney Historic Environment Scotland properties in Orkney Prehistoric Orkney Scheduled monuments in Orkney Neolithic Scotland Rousay Chambered cairns in Scotland {{Scotland-hist-stub

See also

References

External links