Introduction
The frustration which fuelled the polemical stance I adopted for a while towards archaeologists was over the ‘debacle’ of the excavation of the so called ‘Tomb of the Otters’ or ‘Banks chamber’, close to the Tomb of the Eagles in Orkney’s South Ronaldsay. These chambers are in places closest to mainland Scotland on Orkney. With still two small islands in the dangerous Pentland Firth a crossing is a feasible thing to do, but probably always risky also. Maybe the chamber shows that there is a genetic relation with Caithness (N-Scotl), which there most probably is. This incredibly stratified amount of data is in a category of its own, but no doubt the most important untouched chamber found in Britain since Quanterness was opened in the 70’s; a wealth of data, a wealth of stratification, a wealth of preservation, (otter spraint!) and a wealth of information on living conditions, in short a very important place. The excavation is halfway now and stopped in a stand-off with the owners, the refuge chamber has gone into the care of Historic Scotland, no longer the local council and college. This stand-off is detrimental to the quality of the data that are stored there, it is still a treasure now, but under the present conditions this may change in a few years time.
Water
The point is the water that is being drained from the chamber now, because the local archaeologists are of the opinion that the chamber was flooded recently after having been damaged several years ago by a digger, but in fact the chamber was under groundwater level for thousands of years after the rising of the sea level. One look at the nearby pond shows how high the ground water level is, it’s a boggy area now.
The preservation of even the otter spraint (droppings) is so good because it was all preserved in unmoving oxygen starved ground water. This water condition is visible on the wall-stones even with marks of different levels, especially on photos (flash). On the pictures I took it is visible where water has been standing for a very long time in this excavated cell, so long that it has smoothed and coloured the stones, which does not happen in a few years time. Under the present conditions the bones which have been preserved for thousands of years without oxygen are now fully exposed to oxygen all the time, this cannot make them last very long, and will affect them negatively anyway.
Today the chamber is ‘preserved’ in a dry condition, pumped out regularly. In my view this is the wrong way of conservation for something so long used to oxygen-starved conditions. There is only one way to preserve this treasure which is: ‘further excavation’ and wise management, and the only way to get that done is placating the owners and putting bureaucratic rules aside to meet their most urgent wishes
Evidence for theory
What makes the chamber extra important for me personally is that it contains the best preserved and arguable evidence of my concept of the refuge-chambers, the idea that the megalithic passage chambers were made as refuge places to shelter under bad weather conditions, like artificial caves, like an animal’s den with a tunnel or even like an igloo, a sheltered never freezing space as if underground, available for any one who’s own place could not shelter them anymore, a collective amenity built for the ages over the ages.
The Banks-chamber shows us already several things: that the people created a new living-floor when a prolonged stay was foreseen, that the skeletons found in the chamber were buried in situ amid a layer of clay under a layer of flagstones (up to 7 layers are counted in some side cells, 2-3 inch thick each) creating a new and clean living-space for the bad weather spell they came to survive there, that the entrance passage had become uncomfortably low, but was on purpose made smaller with a vacant space under the entrance passage.
On my photos it is clearly visible that water had been standing there for possibly thousands of years. At the moment the chamber is ‘preserved’ in a dry condition, pumped out regularly. In my view this is the wrong way of conservation for something so long used to oxygen-starved conditions. Study the pictures, the imprint of water is so strong that for a moment it may even look as if the water is still standing there, as if you’re looking through a volume of crystal clear water.
The sharp protruding rock pillar is rounded and smooth at the lower part from standing in (ground-) water, the upper part is sharp and rough (unfortunately I did not touch it, but then I only found out about the water-levels from these pictures in flash light)
The lower parts of the chamber cells have been in water for a very long time, not a couple of years, it might even seem as if water is standing there, but water is at the bottom on the upper photo. So what has been preserved under water for 4000 years is now in a dry condition and will probably quickly deteriorate, the loss of a treasure of data, which could tell us about family relations, intervals of ‘internments’, periods of use, how many generations; all gone within a few years and already going bad probably.
The loss of a comprehensive picture of the population of the chamber area is still at stake, but it will take a lot of diplomacy to solve this stand-off, I’m afraid. The importance of the chamber demands that it is excavated by the highest qualified persons Britain can provide and soon, but I don’t think the archaeology community is aware of the situation and the importance of what is at stake.
Layers of flagstones
For what I have been able to piece together from videos, articles and the owner there are found a maximum of 7 layers of bones separated by thin flagstones with otter spraint in every layer. Three layers are in the passage, so the chamber hides a wealth of information on the complete use of the chamber over the centuries. Here is a chance to get one complete untouched picture of a process of starvation and death in the chambers and the aftermath when otters devoured the dead bodies and were shitting their gluttony all over the place. They don’t do that in their den. The archaeologists are wrong to call it an otter’s den, it could not be, and this is the strongest argument for my theory that people died in these shelters and in this case were eaten by otters. It is not your everyday theory but given the now known facts here, most probably true. So this chamber holds the key to the proof of my theory of the chambers being refuge places for bad weather conditions, its untouched record is beyond doubt. But I am afraid archaeologists don’t see that their is a layering of data in this chamber because they regard it as a way of ‘decommissioning’ (a disastrous concept in present day archaeology). Here you could find a treasure in radio carbon dates when it is done thoroughly and double checked, material enough. Being so close to the Tomb of the Eagles (1/2m) there may be more cross references and a whole picture of a community, or of subsequent communities, on the verge of extinction, could evolve. I am afraid the raw reality of my interpretation of the chambers and their contents is most plausible. I have this certain conviction that most of the bones found in chambers are from people who died in the chambers and were subsequently laid forgotten until others came in to use the chamber as refuge again, this could be after a long period of time, because the chambers were probably not so often used. whole families may have perished in cold winters this way. The new inhabitants would handle the bones of those perished there before in different ways, sometimes they were put in one specific side cell, here the bones are covered with clay and flagstones, a layer some 2-3 inch in all to create a new living floor. I suppose that the presence of the old bones gave the new occupiers the hope that the spirits of these dead might help them in their difficult hours to come, when looked after properly. Their is no doubt that bones are a means to relate to the dead, but that is part of the whole shamanic worldview, not a specific cult of the dead, as archaeologists keep on trying to push.
So Banks is very important, not only to me, and I sincerely hope that people who can get something going feel urged to do something about the unfortunate situation, the contents must be saved and the owners respected and satisfied.
