Decorating the Houses of the Dead: Incised and Pecked Motifs in Orkney Chambered Tombs

Abstract

Megalithic art has often been treated as a unitary phenomenon, related to the spread of farming across Western Europe. This approach does not do justice to the very different ways in which tomb decoration was employed by particular communities. This article focuses on the megalithic art of Orkney, much of it recorded for the first time during a recent field survey. This is normally interpreted as a local variant of the style of ‘art’ found in Neolithic Ireland, but on close examination it has much stronger links with the abstract motifs found in local settlements. Whereas the megalithic art of Ireland may have celebrated the passage of the dead to another world, in Orkney it was used to emphasize their continued involvement in the affairs of the living.

Digital imaging and prehistoric imagery: a new analysis of the Folkton Drums

“…To the right of this motif, and partially overlying it, is a further diagonal line and another incised horizontal mark. Together, these two A-shaped incisions create a motif that closely resembles in form (although not in scale) the scratched decoration found in the Maes Howe and Wideford Hill passage tombs, Orkney (Ashmore 1986; Bradley et al 2001) (Figure 3). Further parallels include the lower face A of the Cronk yn How stone, Isle of Man (Darvill et al 2005: fig.…”

More Than Meets the Eye: New Recordings of Megalithic Art in North‐west Ireland

“…It is noticeable that all the carvings on the Listoghil capstone are located on the right half of the stone. This preference or emphasis on the right‐hand side has been noted as a feature of passage tomb construction, as has the occurrence of a greater amount of art in the right‐hand side of the chamber (Eogan 1963; Herity 1974, 123; Shee Twohig 1996, 79; O'Sullivan 1997, 26; Bradley et al . 2000, 60; Robin 2009, 160–2, 241).…”

From Artefact Biographies to ‘Multiple Objects’: A New Analysis of the Decorated Plaques of the Irish Sea Region

“…The decoration of the Cronk yn How stone with incised decoration is quite unusual for a monument of this type. Decoration of this kind is more commonly a feature of the early phases of decoration in the interior of passage tombs in Orkney and Ireland (O'Sullivan 1986, Eogan 1997, Bradley et al 2001.…”