Thursday, July 21, 2011
SANDAY TYPE 2 SYMBOL STONE July 20th 2011
News on Radio Orkney of the find of a Pictish Symbol Stone under the original flagstone floor of Appiehouse in Sanday. Several pagan ones have been found in Orkney - offhand I can think of the Brough of Birsay [copy there, original South], Greens in South Sanday in St Andrew's [original South], and St Peter's Church at Kirkhouse in Paplay on South Ronaldsay [copy there, original South]. However this one is Christian/Christianised, a cross-slab with a Pictish Beast to one side (sometimes called a sea elephant IIRC). The two elements mean this is classed as Type 2. This is the only one ever found on Orkney and is likely to remain so. Julie Gibson reminds us that these were usually placed prominently to indicate that the owner had turned Christian. The Pictish Beast has by some been identified with the monster that St Columba exorcised from Loch Ness, which in turn is read as a metaphor for the triumph of Christ over the pagan deity. The radio did not mention the obverse - was this side plain or has the stone yet to be lifted, in which case we might hope for an inscription to come.
Appie is usually a placename element associated with the Picts, if not necesssarily always a Pict placename [to forestall arguments]. It is very common in Orkney e.g. there are Appiehouse, Appietown and Upper Appietown in Harray along the line of the road up to Dounby. The farm of Appiehouse in Sanday sits on a very slight mound (the larger farm-mounds on Sanday are called tells after Mesopotamian mounds). At Appiehouse in Harray there is a prominent mound that has at least one standing stone on it. This broken stone is now less than a metre high. With its lack of packing around the base could this too have once been a symbol stone ??
Thinking of the Paplay district in South Ronaldsay presumably as in Holm and Paplay it refers to a priestly settlement. But my fanciful brain reads it as papil-ey 'isle of the priests', and about half a kilometre and roughly N from the church a mound in marshy ground (Kirk Ness ND49SE 7) "appears to have stood on the shore, or been on an island near the shore, of a shallow loch which has been long since drained" (Canmore ID 9609). It might have been a broch, in 1879 the O.S. Name Book gives it as traditionally a Danish Fort (though by 1929 locals though the structure on the knoll to have been fishermen's homes !). The 14' high Sorquoy standing stone is about another half kilometre from the mound and under a kilometre from the church.
News on Radio Orkney of the find of a Pictish Symbol Stone under the original flagstone floor of Appiehouse in Sanday. Several pagan ones have been found in Orkney - offhand I can think of the Brough of Birsay [copy there, original South], Greens in South Sanday in St Andrew's [original South], and St Peter's Church at Kirkhouse in Paplay on South Ronaldsay [copy there, original South]. However this one is Christian/Christianised, a cross-slab with a Pictish Beast to one side (sometimes called a sea elephant IIRC). The two elements mean this is classed as Type 2. This is the only one ever found on Orkney and is likely to remain so. Julie Gibson reminds us that these were usually placed prominently to indicate that the owner had turned Christian. The Pictish Beast has by some been identified with the monster that St Columba exorcised from Loch Ness, which in turn is read as a metaphor for the triumph of Christ over the pagan deity. The radio did not mention the obverse - was this side plain or has the stone yet to be lifted, in which case we might hope for an inscription to come.
Appie is usually a placename element associated with the Picts, if not necesssarily always a Pict placename [to forestall arguments]. It is very common in Orkney e.g. there are Appiehouse, Appietown and Upper Appietown in Harray along the line of the road up to Dounby. The farm of Appiehouse in Sanday sits on a very slight mound (the larger farm-mounds on Sanday are called tells after Mesopotamian mounds). At Appiehouse in Harray there is a prominent mound that has at least one standing stone on it. This broken stone is now less than a metre high. With its lack of packing around the base could this too have once been a symbol stone ??
Thinking of the Paplay district in South Ronaldsay presumably as in Holm and Paplay it refers to a priestly settlement. But my fanciful brain reads it as papil-ey 'isle of the priests', and about half a kilometre and roughly N from the church a mound in marshy ground (Kirk Ness ND49SE 7) "appears to have stood on the shore, or been on an island near the shore, of a shallow loch which has been long since drained" (Canmore ID 9609). It might have been a broch, in 1879 the O.S. Name Book gives it as traditionally a Danish Fort (though by 1929 locals though the structure on the knoll to have been fishermen's homes !). The 14' high Sorquoy standing stone is about another half kilometre from the mound and under a kilometre from the church.
Labels: Appiehouse, Appietown, Kirk Ness, Paplay, Pict, Pictish Symbol Stone, Sanday, Type 2
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
WASBISTER RELICS
Intrigued by Nick Card's reference to flints found north of the Bookan tomb. Unfortunately unless there have been later surveys than the dates here one cannot be sure if any finds came from the Black Hill of Warbuster itself. I have left out the definite Viking vessel but included two cists. All measurements from the imperial to nearest sixteenth of an inch, so could be 1mm out either way.
'Arion Farm' HY21NE 16 at HY289144 [either Bookan or Bockan land]
2005 fieldwalking transects revealed a large amount of big heavily-cracked flints near the main road and near the shoreline a Neolithic leaf arrow-head stood out in a flint concentration
BOCKAN farm land
NMAS 1892 catalogue. Three items identified as mace-heads [later IIRC] - two possible proto-cushion types, one of quartzite (AH177) the other gabbro (AH181), and a chalcedony fragment (AH180).
PSAS LXIII (1928-9). Flint items ; four arrow-heads and six leaf ones, one plus six scrapers, a borer, a knife. A whitish quartzite hammer of 'flat' elliptical cross-section. A crude broad-ended 267x87x25 mm ground club-like stone ?axe. All HY21SE 51.
PSAS LXV (1930-1). Two finely polished stone tools ; half a flattened oval section (41x33 mm) hammer, broken at the perforation, and a small fragment of a red and grey flint one. Found by Nicol Dickson (HY21SE 45)
Callendar mentions two broken stone hammers in the NMAS and a mottled brown and yellow fragment, small but finely ground (this HY21SE 52).
BUCKAN farm land
HY21SE 6 at HY28461578. In 1871 short cist with light substance resembling ashes found at top of distinct rise, now area shows as plough-damaged stone scatter
BOOKAN farm land
NMAS 1892 catalogue. Three items identified as mace-heads [later IIRC] - a granite ovoid broken at perforation (AH183), a gneiss pestle type (AH184), and a possible oval one.
PSAS LXIII (1928-9). Flint tools ; two plus one (grey) leaf arrow-heads (the third calcined), eight plus nine (grey) scrapers, knife, pointed blade with battered [angled] back, grey slug-shaped curved tool, grey sub-triangular tool. Two stone axes, 54x35x17 mm and 22x27x17 mm [sic]. HY21SE 47 & 48.
PSAS LXV (1930-1). Flint tools ; 32x19 mm yellowish leaf arrow-head, 44x24 mm triangular arrow-head, 62x44 mm mottled yellow side-scraper, twenty-nine scrapers, three knives, three pointed tools, two borers, combo tool end scraper and pointed tool. Four black chert scrapers. Three stone hammer fragments broken at perforation. 43x37x19mm piece of ground haematite. 5mm thick stone bead 14x13 mm. All HY21SE 47.
Callander mentions three broken stone hammers (HY21SE 50) in the NMAS and six crudely made stone axes. He also says Peter Irvine's collection (HY21SE 47) amounted to 6 leaf arrow-heads, 42 scrapers, 2 side scrapers, 3 poorly made knives, 6 poorly made ?borers. Also four chert scrapers and three partly burnished haematite objects.
PSAS LXVI (1931-2). Flint tools ; fourteen scrapers of black/grey/yellow/red flint, including two side scrapers, grey pointed tool, three worked flints. Three partly burnished heamatite nodules, third somewhat wedge-shaped, sizes 86x38x27 mm and 40x33x 21 mm and 30x17x6 mm. A roughly prepared stone axe 86x67x30 mm with only one end ground. 133x81x51mm sub-oval stone having a ground hollow running along the top side. Broken stone ?mould 67x44x29 mm having a 29mmD 6mm deep hole on the top. All HY21SE 49.
APPIEHOUSE [a.k.a. Abbeytown]
HY21NE 16 at HY284150. In 1850 a short cist with ashes found during the removal of a mound [Howan] several feet high.
PSAS LXIII (1928-9) donation of leaf arrow-head found by Mr.Firth.
PSAS LXV (1930-1) Callander mentions a burnished haematite object (HY21SE 55) two mottled grey flint tools, one a 57x44 mm irregular oval and the other an axe fragment 86x44 mm, and seventeen arrow-heads (16 flint and one chert) - two barbed and the rest leaf arrow-heads of which seven are of a thick but narrow type he calls an Orkney type (all HY21NE 54).
There may be more flint scatters south of HY21NE 16 of course but they definitely seem to peter out at Appiehouse.
Intrigued by Nick Card's reference to flints found north of the Bookan tomb. Unfortunately unless there have been later surveys than the dates here one cannot be sure if any finds came from the Black Hill of Warbuster itself. I have left out the definite Viking vessel but included two cists. All measurements from the imperial to nearest sixteenth of an inch, so could be 1mm out either way.
'Arion Farm' HY21NE 16 at HY289144 [either Bookan or Bockan land]
2005 fieldwalking transects revealed a large amount of big heavily-cracked flints near the main road and near the shoreline a Neolithic leaf arrow-head stood out in a flint concentration
BOCKAN farm land
NMAS 1892 catalogue. Three items identified as mace-heads [later IIRC] - two possible proto-cushion types, one of quartzite (AH177) the other gabbro (AH181), and a chalcedony fragment (AH180).
PSAS LXIII (1928-9). Flint items ; four arrow-heads and six leaf ones, one plus six scrapers, a borer, a knife. A whitish quartzite hammer of 'flat' elliptical cross-section. A crude broad-ended 267x87x25 mm ground club-like stone ?axe. All HY21SE 51.
PSAS LXV (1930-1). Two finely polished stone tools ; half a flattened oval section (41x33 mm) hammer, broken at the perforation, and a small fragment of a red and grey flint one. Found by Nicol Dickson (HY21SE 45)
Callendar mentions two broken stone hammers in the NMAS and a mottled brown and yellow fragment, small but finely ground (this HY21SE 52).
BUCKAN farm land
HY21SE 6 at HY28461578. In 1871 short cist with light substance resembling ashes found at top of distinct rise, now area shows as plough-damaged stone scatter
BOOKAN farm land
NMAS 1892 catalogue. Three items identified as mace-heads [later IIRC] - a granite ovoid broken at perforation (AH183), a gneiss pestle type (AH184), and a possible oval one.
PSAS LXIII (1928-9). Flint tools ; two plus one (grey) leaf arrow-heads (the third calcined), eight plus nine (grey) scrapers, knife, pointed blade with battered [angled] back, grey slug-shaped curved tool, grey sub-triangular tool. Two stone axes, 54x35x17 mm and 22x27x17 mm [sic]. HY21SE 47 & 48.
PSAS LXV (1930-1). Flint tools ; 32x19 mm yellowish leaf arrow-head, 44x24 mm triangular arrow-head, 62x44 mm mottled yellow side-scraper, twenty-nine scrapers, three knives, three pointed tools, two borers, combo tool end scraper and pointed tool. Four black chert scrapers. Three stone hammer fragments broken at perforation. 43x37x19mm piece of ground haematite. 5mm thick stone bead 14x13 mm. All HY21SE 47.
Callander mentions three broken stone hammers (HY21SE 50) in the NMAS and six crudely made stone axes. He also says Peter Irvine's collection (HY21SE 47) amounted to 6 leaf arrow-heads, 42 scrapers, 2 side scrapers, 3 poorly made knives, 6 poorly made ?borers. Also four chert scrapers and three partly burnished haematite objects.
PSAS LXVI (1931-2). Flint tools ; fourteen scrapers of black/grey/yellow/red flint, including two side scrapers, grey pointed tool, three worked flints. Three partly burnished heamatite nodules, third somewhat wedge-shaped, sizes 86x38x27 mm and 40x33x 21 mm and 30x17x6 mm. A roughly prepared stone axe 86x67x30 mm with only one end ground. 133x81x51mm sub-oval stone having a ground hollow running along the top side. Broken stone ?mould 67x44x29 mm having a 29mmD 6mm deep hole on the top. All HY21SE 49.
APPIEHOUSE [a.k.a. Abbeytown]
HY21NE 16 at HY284150. In 1850 a short cist with ashes found during the removal of a mound [Howan] several feet high.
PSAS LXIII (1928-9) donation of leaf arrow-head found by Mr.Firth.
PSAS LXV (1930-1) Callander mentions a burnished haematite object (HY21SE 55) two mottled grey flint tools, one a 57x44 mm irregular oval and the other an axe fragment 86x44 mm, and seventeen arrow-heads (16 flint and one chert) - two barbed and the rest leaf arrow-heads of which seven are of a thick but narrow type he calls an Orkney type (all HY21NE 54).
There may be more flint scatters south of HY21NE 16 of course but they definitely seem to peter out at Appiehouse.
Labels: Appiehouse, Bockan, Bookan, flint scatters
