caithness-1911/05_021

Transcription

xx -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

anyone who should interfere with the mounds which cover these early
remains has tended greatly towards their preservation.
Though the distribution of the prehistoric remains throughout
the habitable parts of the county is fairly regular, there are in
certain regions considerable groups of monuments representative of
former eras of culture. Such groups are to be found around the
lochs of Yarrows and Warehouse, by the loch of Calder, on Shebster
Hill, and in the lower reaches of the Langwell and Dunbeath
Straths.
Our chief source of knowledge regarding the earlier inhabitants
is derived from sepulchral monuments and their contents, for little
or no trace remains of the dwellings wherein they lived. Skulls and
bones indicate the racial characteristics, while the grave goods, which
by Pagan rites of burial accompanied the body to the tomb, disclose
the state of culture, the condition of material existence in this life,
and probable belief in a future state.
The monuments of greatest antiquity in Caithness - the sepulchres
of neolithic man - are the long cairns, of which some eighteen
examples still remain. These are elongated constructions of stone
varying in length up to about 250', narrow and low at one extremity,
- where the breadth is usually from 30' to 40', and the height
trifling - and from about two-thirds of their length increasing to a
width of 50' or 60' and a height of some 10'. As, however, no
perfect example exists, these dimensions must only be regarded as
approximate. At both extremities the typical cairn terminates with
a semicircular concavity formed by the projection of two low arms
or horns. The researches of Dr Joseph Anderson in the long cairns
situated beside the Loch of Yarrows, in 1865, disclosed the fact that
these cairns, so far as their external aspect was concerned, were not
mere structureless masses of piled stones, but that along the edge
of each, and around the horns, there was a double wall of building
retaining the mass of the cairn in position. Entering from the
centre of the concavity at the higher end through a portal from 2'
to 3' in height by 2' in width, may be found a passage lintelled over,
some 15' to 20' in length, leading into a chamber of two or more
compartments. Though the position of the entrance passage in the
centre of the frontal semicircle seems the usual arrangement, its
occurrence is no more universal than is the presence of a single
chamber in the whole length of the cairn. The length and form of
the chamber may vary, but that discovered in the long cairn of
Yarrows (No. 543) will serve as a typical example. It measures 12'
in length, and is divided into three compartments of varying width
by divisional stones which do not reach to the roof, set at right
angles to the walls, opposite to each other. Upright flagstones
and horizontal building have both been employed in the formation
of the walls of the chamber, and the roof has been closed in by
slightly projecting each stone as the wall mounts upwards, com-
mencing at a height of about 7' above the floor level until the span
was so reduced that it could be covered with slabs. Such tombs
appear to have been used for successive burials, access being gained
by the passage as occasion arose, and inhumation and incineration
were both practised. As far as evidence in Caithness goes, incinera-
tion seems to have preceded inhumation, burnt bones being found in