New analysis suggests the location was the scene of an enormous celebration which noticed friends dine on astonishing quantity of shellfish. Experts imagine limpets and periwinkles have been cooked on the Iron Age feasting web site and the shells have been thrown into the pit.
18,637 shells have been discovered discarded within the pit, believed up to now from 300AD to 800AD.
Most shells analysed by UHI Archaeology Institute Masters pupil Holly Young, have been limpets.
The Cairns Iron Age web site in South Ronaldsay was used round 1,500 years in the past in the course of the fifth or sixth century AD.
Martin Carruthers, web site director at The Cairns and lecturer at University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute, stated: “This is an astonishing number of shells for a short-lived, single-event context.
“This suggests it may have been part of a special food event, a feast involving the whole community of the site or even beyond.”
He added: “One of our project research aims has been to investigate the role of souterrains and this extraordinary contemporary feasting is adding to our picture that souterrains may have been very special places involving social and ritual practices, in addition to whatever other roles they may have had in food production or storage.
“Indeed, during the construction of The Cairns souterrain another cache of shells was placed over the slab roof of the structure along with a special deposit of rotary querns.”
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https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1411202/Orkney-Cairns-Iron-Age-site-South-Ronaldsay-shellfish-pit-Iron-Age-feast-Scotland