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Iron Age burial practices in Britain are among the most enigmatic, as few ‘formal’ cemeteries are known from this period (with some exceptions, such as among the Durotriges in Dorset; see CA 281). In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we are looking at how a diverse array of scientific methodologies have helped to shed new light on Iron Age funerary traditions in Scotland.
In 2000, human remains were found to be eroding out of a cairn next to Loch Borralie on the Durness Peninsula – an area that, while remote today, was once home to a number of thriving prehistoric communities, particularly during the Bronze and Iron Ages. The site was subsequently excavated, revealing two burials: one of an adult and one of a child.
The skeletons have now been reanalysed by an international team led by researchers from the University of York (their full results were recently published in Antiquity: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10353). Radiocarbon dating placed both burials between c.50 BC and AD 70. This means that they pre-date the initial Roman incursion into Scotland, which began in AD 79. Ancient DNA analysis has established that the adult was female and the child was male, and that they were probably related through their maternal line. Both individuals had the same rare mitochondrial haplogroup (inherited from your mother), which is not currently known from any other ancient individual from Britain whose DNA has been analysed. Based on this fact, their similar dates, and their level of genetic relatedness, the team suggest that the woman and child could have been second cousins, sharing a pair of great-grandparents.
The pair were also found to have distant biological links to Orkney. Data from other sites indicate that the woman was related to a man whose remains were excavated at the Atlantic roundhouse site of Bu and dated to c.399-207 BC, at least 150 years (perhaps five or six generations) earlier than the Loch Borralie burials. Meanwhile, the child was found to be related to an individual from the Knowe of Skea, dating to c.AD 25-215, and both the woman and the boy were related to a male, dating to c.42 BC-AD 119, who had been buried in a stone cairn at Applecross on the west mainland of Scotland, around 90 miles (140km) south-west of Loch Borralie.
Isotopic analysis has given illuminating insights, too, demonstrating that both individuals from Loch Borralie had similar profiles and probably spent the early part of their lives in a coastal environment, but they were not local to the area where they were laid to rest. It is possible that they may have come from a stretch of the east coast of Sutherland, between the modern towns of Helmsdale and Golspie. Given the closeness of their radiocarbon dates and their isotopic profiles, it is possible that the pair had travelled together, perhaps as part of a larger group. Analysis of the cairn’s stratigraphy, however, indicates that they were not buried at the same time.
Rather more enigmatic, however, were the signs of traumatic injury that were observed throughout the woman’s skeleton, including an unusual fracture at the base of the cranium where it joins the cervical vertebrae. The smooth texture and even colour along the break surfaces suggest that this occurred at or soon after the time of her death, and while fractures in this area are often caused through high-velocity impacts (or even long-drop hanging), the pattern of this particular injury is less typical. It appears instead to have been intentionally targeted, perhaps in an effort to open the cranial vault at the weakest point of entry. The team suggest that this might reflect someone trying to access the inside of the cranium, either to remove the brain in order to use it in some way, or to clean the skull for use or display.
A series of three straight, parallel striations were also noted on the inside (or endocranial) surface of the woman’s frontal bone (the part of the skull beneath her forehead and upper eye sockets). They appear to have been deliberately scratched or cut into the bone using a sharp tool, possibly again representing the removal of the brain. There were fractures on both of her shoulder blades, too, while several of the long bones (both humeri, the left ulna, and the left femur) appear to have been sharpened to a point (above). The pointed end of the femur then seems to have been flattened, possibly by grinding it against a surface, suggesting its prolonged use as some kind of tool. By contrast, no traumatic injuries were seen on the child’s remains.
Overall, these two burials not only provide strong evidence for community connections stretching across northern Scotland during this period, but also add to our still-growing understanding of post-mortem ‘curation’ of human remains in the Iron Age, where bones were sometimes modified and used either as tools or decorative objects (see also CA 368 for research into practices from the Bronze Age). The fact that the Borralie woman had subsequently been reburied in the correct anatomic position suggests that such interventions were not seen as disrespectful, but were perhaps instead a way of revering and remembering the dead.
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: Castells Navarro et al., Antiquity 2026
