The Tomb of the Eagles
Lifestyles and Diseases of Neolithic Orkney
Oct 3, 2008 Ian Arthur Colquhoun
Sited on a cliff edge on the island of South Ronaldsay, Ron Simison discovered the Tomb of the Eagles on his farm in the late 1950s. Most burial monuments in the British Isles have been disturbed by grave robbers or Victorian gentlemen archaeologists, so it is rare to find such sites intact. Excavations of the tomb produced the remains of over 340 individuals scattered through the passages and chambers, a total of over 16,000 bones, including many skulls. This was very much a communal burial site.
As well as the human bones there were animal and fish bones, and, most interesting of all, the bones of over 640 white-tailed sea eagle bones were mixed in with them.
Neolithic Lifestyles and Diseases
Archaeologists were able to analyse the human bones to get an insight into the lifestyle and diseases of the time. Men averaged 5'7" tall, and women just under 5'4", only slightly shorter than modern Orcadians. They led hard physical lives; the skulls of many women were depressed as they carried objects with a band across their forehead, as people still do in Nepal. Even children had deformed ankles, possibly due to constant scaling of sea cliffs in search of bird eggs.
Life expectancy on surviving birth was just under 20 years. Few people reached the age of 50: women lucky enough to survive their childhood were likely to die in childbirth. Both sexes suffered and died from wounds and illnesses we can now treat as a matter of course. Osteoarthritis was common, even amongst younger adults. Some people suffered from dental abscesses and impacted wisdom teeth.
The skull of one woman formed the basis for a computer reconstruction by Maria Vanezis of Glasgow University.
Children would have outnumbered adults and would have had to play their part in everyday tasks. Few would see their parents grow into late middle age, and most must have been brought up by adults other than their mother and father. Family connections would have been more complex than people imagine.
Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating has shown that the tomb was in use around 3,000 BC. A recent dating of the eagle bones has shown these were added to the other bones about 1,000 years later, indicating later use of the tomb around the end of the Neolithic. It seems the original builders did not worship sea eagles!
References
John Hedges (1985) A Guide to Isbister Chambered Tomb http://www.tomboftheeagles.co.uk/
The Tomb of the Eagles
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