What if #TheDig had been set in #Caithness?

It's not such a far-fetched idea you know - afterall, an exciting and rare boat burial discovery was also made here in the county!

a wee thread on boat burials:

In 1935 a #Norse boat burial was recorded by Alexander Ormiston Curle in 1935, about 220m west of what was the Huna Hotel (pictured).

Finds included timber, rivets, a chain and metal objects...and a piece of skull!

Thanks to https://vikingfuneralscapes.wordpress.com/  for image of #Huna Hotel.

This was - in all likelihood - the first #Viking boat burial to be discovered on the #Scottish mainland.

Other boat burials had been found on Scottish islands:

These boat burials including Kiloran Bay on Colonsay in 1882, where a human skeleton lay, crouched on its left side, was found along with cross-incised stones and a series of bronze and iron objects such as weights and scales.

Or Wick of Aith on #Fetlar, #Shetland.

Locals had believed the site was the resting place of a giant, buried with money above his head.

Here, an 'inexpert' dig meant that the opportunity to learn more about the boat was lost, but a beautiful tortoise #brooch was discovered.

Perhaps most famous of all was the #Scar boat burial on the island of #Sanday, on #Orkney, originally discovered in 1985 by a local man John Dearness.

John found bones and an iron object at the site, but thought it was a car battery!

It was rediscovered in 1991. A race against time and tide - the coastal site was being battered by waves - to carefully excavate and record the site commenced.

The #Vikings had dug too large a pit and the 6.5m-long vessel was surrounded by stone 'packing' to keep it in place

Though the wood had long-rotted away, 300 rivets were found.

The image below shows where the rivets were placed.

Within the site the remains of three people were found - a man, woman and child.

The below items were found beside the man:

a quiver w/ eight arrows
iron sword,
a bone comb
A set of 22 gaming pieces.

Alongside the woman there was a

a comb
a sickle
a weaving sword
shears
two spindle whorls.
a gilded brooch

By dating the artefacts and by obtaining radio-carbon dates, the grave was dated to between 875 AD - 950 AD.

Most notably was the 'Scar Plaque', an ornate whalebone perhaps used for smoothing clothes, and is associated with the woman.

#Sandy #Norse #Viking

Back to Huna - sadly, by 1980 there was no trace left of the mound the boat was found in, and the boat burial was never really recorded properly. This meant meant that it is difficult to ever prove that this was a certified #Norse boat burial.

Instead, the 'first mainland boat burial' was bestowed upon the Ardnamurchan boat burial, on the west coast of Scotland, which was excavated in 2011 and excavated by @ArchScot and @uniofleicester & @OfficialUoM.

A number of grave goods were found within this boat burial, such as a sword bent into an S-shape and a spear snapped in half - these acts may have been a ritual 'killing' of the weapons.

#norse #boatburial

In the ship archaeologists discovered fragmentary remains of a man, including pieces of an arm bone and teeth.

Other grave goods consisted of an axe, a knife, a bronze ring-pin from Ireland, items of pottery, a whetstone from Norway, a drinking horn, a sickle, and a set of tongs and a ladle, which each contained traces of organic materials.

Using isotopic dating technology, researchers were able to determine the diet of the individual throughout his life which helped to determine where he might have come from...

The isotopic analysis revealed that he lived by the coast at some point, and so it has been suggested that he came from either eastern Ireland, northeastern mainland Scotland, Norway and Sweden.

Well...maybe he came from #Caithness!