Midhowe Chambered Cairn facts for kids
The Midhowe Chambered Cairn is a very old and large stone tomb from the Neolithic period (New Stone Age). You can find it on the south shore of Rousay, an island in Orkney, Scotland. The name "Midhowe" comes from a nearby Iron Age tower called Midhowe Broch. This tower is called "Midhowe" because it's the middle one of three similar towers close by. "Howe" comes from an old Norse word, haugr, which means a mound or a burial place. Both the tower and the tomb are part of a big group of ancient buildings found near Eynhallow Sound, which separates Rousay from Mainland, Orkney.
Contents
What is Midhowe Chambered Cairn?
Midhowe is a great example of a special kind of ancient tomb called an Orkney-Cromarty type chambered cairn. These tombs are often called "stalled" cairns. Imagine a long hallway inside, with stone slabs sticking out on both sides. These slabs create separate areas, a bit like stalls in a stable. Early explorers thought they looked like horse stalls, which is how they got their name!
The first stalled cairns were simpler, usually with only a few stalls. But in Orkney, they became much grander. Midhowe is one of the biggest, with twelve stalls along a passageway that is about 23.6 metres (77 ft) long. The stone slabs forming the stalls are about 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall, and the walls still stand about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high.
Like most ancient tombs in Orkney, the original roof is gone. Today, a modern roof protects the site. We don't know exactly what the first roof looked like. It might have been made of flat stone slabs, or it could have been a tall, arched roof like the one at Maeshowe. It seems that after hundreds of years of use, starting around 3000 BC, the cairn was intentionally filled with stones and dirt.
Exploring Inside the Tomb
Walking into Midhowe must have been an amazing experience for people long ago. It's described as being a bit like entering a tiny church. There's a straight path down the middle, with tall stone slabs on each side. At the very end, there's a special area like a shrine. On the north side of the tomb, some of the stalls had low stone benches or shelves. This is where the bones of ancestors were carefully placed.
How the Tomb Was Built
The cairn was originally covered by an oval mound of earth and stones, called a barrow. This mound was about 33 metres (108 ft) long and 13 metres (43 ft) wide. It was held up by three stone walls built in circles, one inside the other. These walls looked like steps. Some of the stones in the walls were placed at angles, creating cool patterns. These patterns are similar to designs found on special pottery called Unstan ware bowls, which were also found inside the tomb. These designs were clearly meant to be seen as part of the building's beauty.
Unstan ware pottery is named after the Unstan Chambered Cairn on the Mainland of Orkney. This type of pottery is mostly found in tombs, especially the Orkney-Cromarty type. Other tombs where Unstan ware has been found include the Tomb of the Eagles at Isbister and Taversoe Tuick and Knowe of Yarso, also on Rousay.
Midhowe is special because it has a "horned forecourt" on its north side. This is a curved area in front of the tomb, shaped like horns. If you imagine extending these curves, the area would have been about 70 metres (230 ft) across. This suggests it was a large ceremonial space where hundreds of people could gather.
Who Was Buried Here?
Midhowe was a place for collective burial, meaning many people were buried together. The remains of at least 25 different people were found inside the tomb. Seven of the twelve stalls had shelves, and bodies were found in groups of two to four on six of these shelves. Some skeletons were found in a crouched position, with their backs against the wall and heads resting on the stone pillars.
Other groups of bones had been moved to the center of the shelves or swept underneath them. This suggests that older burials were moved to make room for new ones. In some cases, only skulls were present. In one instance, long bones were piled together with a skull placed on top.
Bones from many different animals were also found in the tomb. These included ox, sheep, and various birds like skua, cormorant, buzzard, eagle, gannet, and carrion-crow. Fish bones from bream and wrasse were also present. Bream fish don't live this far north today. This suggests that the waters around Orkney during the Neolithic period were warmer than they are now.
