Tomb of the Eagles, Neolithic chambered tomb in South Ronaldsay, Scotland.
The Isbister Chambered Cairn is a Neolithic tomb sitting on limestone cliffs, built with a central chamber and three smaller side chambers connected by a narrow passage. The entire structure appears as a stone house from ancient times, constructed to house the dead for generations.
The tomb was built around 5,000 years ago and served as a burial place for hundreds of people over thousands of years. A farmer named Ronald Simison found it by chance in 1958 while looking for flagstones, leading archaeologists to begin major excavations from 1976 onward.
The tomb served as a shared burial place across generations, where people were laid to rest alongside the bones of white-tailed sea eagles. This practice reveals beliefs that mattered deeply to the Neolithic inhabitants of these islands.
The finds from the tomb are now displayed at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall, as the original site closed permanently in 2020. Visitors can view the bones and artifacts there while learning more about the excavation history.
Studies of skulls found at the site show that many of the buried individuals bore injuries from wooden clubs and stone axes. These discoveries suggest that violence was not uncommon in this Neolithic society.
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