A Human Skeleton Was Found Inside a Mysterious Stone Structure in Scotland. Archaeologists Still Don't Know Why It Was Buried There

A human skeleton found inside a mysterious stone-lined structure in northern Scotland may date to the Iron Age, but archaeologists are still trying to determine what the unusual feature was used for—and why someone was laid to rest there. Researchers with Highland Archaeology Services, a commercial archaeology company, discovered the unusual burial in the Scottish Highlands earlier this year. They were working near the town of Dornoch, roughly 200 miles north of Edinburgh, ahead of an expansion of a local quarry.

As crews stripped away the topsoil, a ring of stones began to emerge, Caroline McMorran reports for the Northern Times. As they kept digging, they uncovered an oval-shaped depression that measured around 10 feet long, 6.5 feet wide and 3 feet deep. It was lined with stone, with a slabbed floor and steep steps leading down into the structure.

Inside the pit, archaeologists found a human skeleton, animal bones, and deposits containing charcoal and chunks of burnt wood. They also recovered a broken steatite, or soapstone, bowl and a fragment of a shale bangle. Those artifacts, along with the nearby pits and postholes that may represent the remains of roundhouses (a kind of circular dwelling commonly found in ancient Scotland), have led archaeologists to tentatively date the site to the Iron Age.

He suggests the sunken structure could be a souterrain, a kind of underground room used to both store food and hide from enemies. Alternatively, it might have been incorporated into an aboveground building, possibly a roundhouse. The unusual feature could also have served as a ritual well, although its exact purpose remains uncertain.

People reached Scotland soon after the Ice Age ended. Archaeological evidence shows that hunter-gatherers were moving into the newly ice-free landscape roughly 14,000 years ago. Archaeologists think this may have helped the structure hold liquid, although its relatively small size would have limited its capacity.

Its narrow entrance and steep staircase also make a straightforward water storage function difficult to explain. Other elements of the pit offer additional clues about the activities that may have taken place at the site. One of the stones lodged in the southern wall appears to have been repurposed.