DESCRIPTIONS OP CRANIA.
visited by unearthly ghosts—had theu- own proper inhabitants, fitted for life and for enjoyment
in oUmes to which they were native.
In July 1855, Mr. George Petrie of Kii-kwaU, Corr. Memb. S.A.S., to whose great attention
and kindness we owe the cranivun to be described, as weU as a minute account of its excavation,
illustrated by drawings, examined a remarkable complex cist that had been previously discwered
by the removal of the barrow with which it was sui-rounded, situated on the farm of Newbigging
in the Parish of St. Ola, near KirkwaU. The spot had been known to be marked by the graws of
the aboriginal inhabitants from former discoveries. In one cist, an urn of mica-stone, contaimng
burnt bones and ashes, had been found a month before*. Ajid two years earlier, on opening a
large bai-row, on the neighbouring farm of Nether Scapa, a square cist was met with formed by
large flags of the old red sandstone of the locality, placed on edge, and divided into two compartments
by another placed lengthwise along the centre from east to west. Plagstones neatly fitted
formed the bottoms of the two cists thus produced, and aU the seams were secured by clay. The
south cist was covered by a large flag above six feet long, but contained nothing more than some
big pieces of stone. The north cist, which had a thinner cover stone, stiU held a human skeleton,
much wasted by time, and huddled together, the fragments of the skuU being nearly in the
centre of the grave. The body had evidently been interred in a contracted posture. Two or
three feet from the south-east angle of the cist, and about two feet above the level of its cover, a
small quantity of biu-nt bones was found on a flat stone, and at the opposite side human bones
unburnt lay imbedded in the clay. This bai-row was situated in a vaUey near the shore of the
Bay of Scapa. Within sight of it, in a picturesque spot, on the south-east dechvity of a liill,
wliich forms the west side of the vaUey, and commanding a full view of Kirkwall Bay to the
north, and of Scapa Bay to the south, stood the barrow opened in July 1855, containing the
three cists, of which the following is a section, running across the end and north and south.
Section of Nembiggmg barrow and cists, with skeletons in situ.
This baiTow itself was about thirty feet in diameter at the base, and five or six in height,
and was chiefly composed of clayt. On the removal of the earth of the barrow, the top of the
the Orkneys, the conoid, to the Scandinavians, although some
of his reasons for such attribution are by no means convincing,
as this Newbigging bowl-shaped barrow, containing inhumed
* Urns formed of stone are not uncommonly met with in
the Orkney barrows. A large cinerary urn discovered near
the celebrated Standing Stones on the Loch of Stenuess, is
composed of the same mineral, mica-slate, as that from Newbigging.
Others have been found of red sandstone.
-}• Lieut. Thomas ayipropriates another series of barrows of
2 1 .
bodies, itself proves.—" Account of some of the Celtic Antiquities
of Orkney," Archicologia, xxiv. lOS.
(2)
ANCIENT ORCADIAN—NEWBIGGING, ORKNEY.
lower cist which we shall describe fii-st, for from it our cranium is derived, was found to be about
on the same level as the natural surface of the hill. The longitudinal dii-ection of this cist was
nearly east and west. It measm-ed 4 feet 8 inches long, 3 feet 1 inch wide, and 2 feet 8 mches
deep In the construction of this ancient place of sepulture a large hole had first been dug, and
the cist formed within it by placing on edge the two large side flagstones and the end flags. That
formin- the bottom had apparently been let down afterwards. Then the whole was covered in
by a flag 5 feet 5 inches long, and 4 feet 5 inches wide. After which blocks of stone were placed
outside the upright flags to support them, and the vacant space behind filled in with clay. Upon
the covering stone of this cist another similar structure had been subsequently raised, of the
same dimensions in length and breadth, but only 1 foot 1 inch deep. This upper cist was
divided into two by a flag placed in the midcUe on its edge, of the same depth and length as the
cist itself. The southern of the two smaller cists' thus formed was covered by a large heavy
.flagstone, having a piece cliipped out of the middle at each end, apparently for the purpose of
being more conveniently handled when lifted. That on the northern side had a thinner covering
flag, nearly 7 feet long, which overlapped that of the southern compartment. The north side
and the east and west ends of the upper striicture were enclosed by a rudely built wall, whüe
the south side was shut in by a flagstone. The whole of the flags had received a sort of rough
dressing at the edges. A considerable heap of stones was piled on the covering flags of the
upper smaU narrow cists. Both these were qtdte empty when exposed, and had the appearance
of never having been occupied. Their dimensions were so smaU that neither of them could have
received the body of an adult. If they had ever contained those of chüdren, these had wholly
perished and disappeared.
To return to the lower large cist. On removing the covering flags two skeletons were
discovered at the bottom, and a smaU heap of bm-nt bones and ashes at one side of them. The
skuUs were at the extremities of the cist, the remaining bones towards the middle. The
skeleton of the western haK was the one to which the cranium here depicted belonged. That
of the other skeleton, which is restored in the front of our sketch, had greatly perished, so that
only a few fragments, chiefly of the lower jaw and some teeth, accompanied with two metatarsal
bones, remained. The robust appearance of these parts and the worn state of the teeth, render it
probable that they belonged to a man who had passed the middle period of life. The first skeleton
rested on its right side. The right hand appeared to have been placed under the right cheek,
and the left arm folded across the chest. That in the fore-part of our sketch lay on its left side,
and was so much wasted that its original position could not be ascertained. Erom the fact that
its thigh- and leg-bones lay across and above those of the other skeleton, it was inferred that this
latter was the prior interment, but the probability is that both bodies were deposited in this
cist contemporaneously. The inhumation of two bodies in so small a cist could have been effected
only in the primitive flexed or contracted posture.
The cranial relic recovered from this cist, probably the most distinctive and faithful representation
of an ancient Orcadian known, may be regarded as the capacious skull of a man
of more than sixty years of age. Its facial aspect is that of the ancient Briton, in all those
features we have so frequently described as characteristic of the race. It is large in every
direction. The forehead, of medium height and expansion, is balanced by a deep and wide
occipital region. A perpendicular line rising through the centre of the auditory orifice divides the
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