Maes Howe

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MAES HOWE
Burial Mound or Measurer of Time?

knife blade cannot be inserted between them. Reminiscent of some of the structures of SouthAmerica, such as Sacsayhuaman, Macchu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, all dated to around the same time.

At the time of sunset on the winter solstice, the sun shines down the main passage and illuminates the wall below the entrance to the north-eastern chamber. This is the same design as that at Newgrange and the alignment of the roofbox to allow the sun of the winter solstice to enter, though at Newgrange it is the rising sun, and at Maes Howe it is the setting sun.

REFERENCES:

Henshall, A.; (1993) "The Chambered Cairns", in The Prehistory of Orkney, Edinburgh University Press.

One of the most striking aspects of Maes Howe is that it was built so the winter solstice sun hits the Barnhouse Stone 800 metres away, then shines right down the passageway of the chamber and onto the ledge of one of the three cells built in the wall of the tomb. This would have required such precision in building that it begs the question: Why was there such a need to build these monuments to mark the time?

Figure 7: The Barnhouse Stone front-on. Image by Andy Burnham. Click for larger image, also by Andy Burnham.

Figure 5: The Barnhouse Stone side-on. Image by Andy Burnham.

Maes Howe, in Orkney, has been radiocarbon dated to 2,820 B.C. It was built on a rocky knoll amidst a landscape not unlike today's, near the Stones of Stenness, and is one of the finest monuments of prehistoric Scotland. It remains as one of the most well-preserved tunnel mounds in western Europe. It is categorised as a chambered tomb, even though no bodies were found within the chamber, only a fragment of a human skull. The mound is placed centrally within a circular ditch and bank, about 150 metres in diametre. This bank does not seem to be a true henge, and it has been suggested that it may be the remnants of the construction of the flat, circular, clay platform on which the mound now stands. This platform has been radiocarbon dated to 3,930 B.C. So then, it seems that whatever it was that once stood upon the platform was removed, destroyed, or simply replaced by this building nearly a thousand years later.

Figure 1: The tunnel mound of Maes Howe in Orkney.

Figure 2: Map indicating the locations of Maes Howe, the Stones Of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, and the Barnhouse Stone.

Audrey Henshall states: "The excellence of the masonry at Maes Howe goes far beyond that of any other other tomb...it is one of the supreme achievements of Neolithic Europe." (Henshall 1993).

The blocks used fit together with a fine precision, surfaces have been chiselled to achieve a flat surface or to round off the edge of the corbelling, and, unlike at other sites, the slabs are accurately plumbed to the vertical. Some of the massive rectangular slabs used here are over 5 metres long, weighing in at over 3 tons. The quality of the drystone masonry is superb: no mortar was used and some of the slabs still fit so well together that a

Figure 3: Inside Maes Howe; the main passageway to the outside can be seen. Click image for an overview of the layout of Maes Howe.

Just inside the entrance to the passage on the left side there is a recess built into the passage wall. This recess holds a large stone, which was found in the passage during the excavations of 1861. This stone may have been used by the builders of Maes Howe to block the front of the passage. The recess suggests that the blocking and unblocking of the mound could be carried out at will. The stone fits the width of the passage exactly, but leaves a strip above open to a height of 50cm. This feature is, again, very reminiscent of the roof-box above the passage in Newgrange.

Figure 4: The winter solstice light shining down the main passageway.

Figure 6: The light from the winter solstice after striking the Barnhouse Stone, entering the main passageway at Maes Howe.

The next question this site raises is, why align the sun at the winter solstice with the Barnhouse Stone, more than 800 metres away? This must have been a massive feat of skill to align these, so why the effort?

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