Excavation of a Bronze Age burial at Mousland, Stromness, Orkney

Abstract

An earthen burial mound with a surrounding kerb was excavated in 1990. The central cist contained a cremation of an adult, possibly female. A polished stone axe lay outside the cist. A radiocarbon date from charcoal within the cist showed the remains to be of Early/Middle Bronze Age date. The cist and kerb were constructed before the mound, which was built up from successive deposits of turves and soil. Palaeobotanical and micromorphological analyses demonstrate the landscape to have been open grassland and heathland. There are reports on `Mound sequence: the preparation of the ground' by J Downes & C French (143--4), `The contents of the cist' by C Dickson, J Downes, J I McKinley & P Hinton (146--7), `The structure of the mound' by J Downes, C French, P Hinton & R Scaife (147--8).