Tomb of the Eagles: Death and Life in a Stone Age Tribe

John W. Hedges

doi:10.5771/9781461732686

Summary

Isbister in the Orkneys is one of those extraordinary archaeological sites where the remains of Neolithic man and his works have been so well preserved that they give us an amazingly clear picture of the life and people of 5000 years ago.

In Tomb of the Eagles John W. Hedges describes vividly the activities of a tribe which had as its totem the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle. For these people the building and use of the tomb was symbol and expression of their identity. It was here that the dead joined their ancestors–but only after the flesh had been stripped from their bones. It was here, too, that offerings were made. Here broken pots were piled; fish, eagles and joints of meat mouldered; and the hands of the living sorted the heaped bones of the dead.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/1998
Copyright Year: 1998
ISBN-Print: 978-0-941533-05-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4617-3268-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 245
Product Type: Monograph

1. Table of Contents No access
Foreword No access Pages 1 - 4
1. Those Low Green Isles No access
2. Monumenta Orcadica No access
3. Past Inquiries No access
4. The New Archaeology No access
1. Discovery and First Delvings No access
2. A Profitable Interlude No access
3. Digging in Earnest No access
4. A Body of Experts No access
1. The Building of Isbister Tomb No access
2. Other Orcadian Tombs No access
3. The Era of the Tombs No access
4. Tribal Orkney I No access
5. Tribal Orkney II No access
1. Ritual Centres No access
2. Mortuary Practice No access
3. Totem and Taboo No access
4. Astronomer Priests No access
1. Structure and Dynamics of a Dead Population No access
2. What did they Look Like? No access
3. Pain, Injury and Decrepitude No access
1. Farmer, Hunter, Fisherman, Gatherer No access
2. Craftsmanship and Housekeeping No access
3. The Habitations of the Living No access
Epilogue: The Past in the Present No access Pages 234 - 238
Bibliography No access Pages 239 - 240
Index No access Pages 241 - 245