ABOUT THE TOMB
The discovery of the undisturbed tomb at Banks on 16 September 2010 by Hamish Mowatt, complete with visible human skulls, is providing the first opportunity to study the undisturbed burials of a Neolithic community in decades.
The Neolithic builders quarried out rock to allow construction to begin. They created a central chamber measuring approximately 4 metres long by 75 centimetres across and aligned east to west. Access to the interior of the tomb was by a north facing entrance passage. Cells were capped by large waterworn stones - one of which had always intrigued Hamish.
He dug down the side of this large capstone, managed to get a camera inside the East Cell and connected this to a monitor and saw a skull looking back at him. He then contacted Julie Gibson, County Archaeologist. A project design was produced by ORCA and agreed with Julie and Historic Scotland. The evaluation excavation 1 took place 26 October to 10 November 2010.
The tomb is very small inside and not high so you will need to stoop to move around the central passageway. It is possible to sit on the step in the entrance if this proves too difficult for you.
Please make sure you have waterproof shoes as there could be a little water on the ground. The maximum number allowed in the Tomb with the guide is three. The reason we do guided tours is to preserve the tomb for future generations.
Evaluation excavations in November 2010 by The Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA) on the mound at Banks established that it represents a Neolithic chambered tomb. The surviving heart of the monument consists of five burial cells, one with an upper shelf. These are partly subterranean and are constructed within a quarry into the bedrock. The central chamber, aligned east to west, has an entranceway leading off to the north, two larger cells at either end, a single cell to the north and two cells to the south. The North and East cell contained human bones placed on top of a layer of slabs. This formed some type of closing deposits as if it was a final gesture.
Six bones and skulls were found in two chambers resting on the top stones.
A three week dig in March 2011 by the ORCA team recovered a wealth of human remains as well as samples for DNA analysis. Leading the team was Dan Lee, projects officer who explained 'our main priority was to excavate into the western cell and see whether we could find any skeletal remains inside'.
The west cell was cut into bedrock and had been lined with interior walling. As they worked down through the layers, recording everything very meticulously, they were dealing with an incredible assemblage of disarticulated human bones. All parts of the human skeleton were represented, including tiny bones such as finger bones, sternums, kneecaps and skulls covering all age ranges from very young children, perhaps babies to adults. It is hoped that dates can be obtained from the final closing deposits and from the earliest burials in the west cell. There were seven separate layers in total containing 2,000 human bones including otter skulls and bones. Large quantities of otter spraint were found in all seven layers showing that the tomb had been left open allowing Otters to come and go as they pleased.
No further funding was available to ORCA, so we employed a Canadian archaeologist to excavate the entrance and central passageway. After 28 days. 1000 human bones including adults, children and babies were recovered. They were buried in three separate layers with clay and thin slabs of stone with otter spraint among the bones in each layer. A deer antler was uncovered along with some pieces of pottery with four different patterns. Underneath a babies skull was a polished piece of Flint stone in the shape of an animals head was recovered.
A new chamber was revealed underneath a stone floor two meters long in the entrance passageway. This chamber contains human remains along with otters spraint.
The floor leads to a step down into the central passage which is unique to any other tomb in Orkney