Monument record MHG5134 - Cairn w finds, Tote

Summary

No summary available.

Location

Grid reference Centred NG 4096 4975 (16m by 16m) (Buffered by site type)
Map sheet NG44NW
Geographical Area SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Old County INVERNESS-SHIRE
Civil Parish SNIZORT

Map

Type and Period (2)

Full Description

In autumn 1922 a large grass-grown cairn on foreshore at Tote was excavated by T C Lethbridge. The cairn was about 40ft in diameter and about 8ft high. In the top was a cup-shaped depression which may have been caused by robbery for wall-building, or by a secondary burial. At ground level in centre of cairn was a short cist containing upwards of 150 flint and other flakes and two rude scrapers. There was no trace of bone, although charcoal was abundant. (T C Lethbridge 1920) The secondary burial was about 1.5ft below surface of depression on top of cairn: it was composed of fine sand in which were a few fragments of a human femur and burnt bones. Associated with the burial were an iron axe (with remains of handle), a bronze penannular broach (with fragments of leather still adhering to it), a bone bead, a hone, a piece of wood, 2ins long, a great number of rusty pieces of iron attached to fragments of wood - probably the remains off a shield, but also described as boat rivets, (A O Curle M Olsen and H Shetelig 1954) and several small iron fragments. The finds are in the private possession of T C Lethbridge (S Grieg 1940).
The flints from the cist are listed as mesolithic survivals and described as a remarkable series of buchite, or vitrified shale, artifacts found in two (sic) Bronze Age cairns. They include fairly large fine blades, some retouched, a few cores, one apparently having served as a scraper, and a steeply dressed trimming-flake. An abruptly edge-blunted microlith, made on a narrow blade, very probably cut by micro-burin technique, constitutes most northerly example of kind in British Isles (A D Lacaille 1954).
T C Lethbridge 1920; S Grieg 1940; A O Curle, M Olsen and H Shetelig 1954; A D Lacaille 1954.

This cairn, situated at NG 4097 4975 a few feet above high water mark on the E side of Loch Snizort, now measures 19.0m in diameter and 1.2m in height. The central excavation is very obvious with the stones lying loose; the remainder of the cairn is turf covered.
Visited by OS (C F W) 24 April 1961.

Flints from this cairn are in Cambridge University Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology by T C Lethbridge (51.1063).
Museum Accessions Register.

Sources/Archives (4)

  • --- Text/Publication/Article: Lethbridge, T C. 1920. A burial of the Viking Age in Skye. Archaeological Journal, Vol 77. 135-6.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Grieg, S. 1940. Viking antiquities in Scotland. 70-1.
  • --- Text/Publication/Volume: Lacaille, A D. 1954. The Stone Age in Scotland. 299.
  • --- Text/Publication/Article: Curle, Olsen and Shetelig, A O, M and H. 1954. Civilisation of the Viking settlers in relation to their old and new countries. 75.

Finds (15)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)

Related Events/Activities (0)

Record last edited

Dec 10 2009 4:55PM

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