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MHG61913 - Iron Age inhumation burial - Sangobeg Sands

Summary

An Iron Age inhumation burial discovered during excavation at Sangobeg Sands.

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An Iron Age inhumation burial discovered during excavation at Sangobeg Sands.

Salvage excavation was carried out by Glasgow University (GUARD) in 2000 in dunes at Sangobeg, near Durness in northern Sutherland, on a site discovered during the North Sutherland Coastal Zone Assessment Survey in 1998 (see EHG130). The excavation uncovered the fragmentary remains of probable Norse-period settlement (see MHG29877). Sealed beneath the Norse-period remains in Area D was the burial of a child. Most of the bones were present (approximately 60% complete) but all were eroded at either end and analysis showed they had been gnawed by rodents. The cranium was in situ but had been partly crushed by the weight of the overlying sand and stones. On examination the remains proved to be of indeterminate sex but were of a child aged between 8–10 years. The body had been placed in a flexed position on a bed of quartzite pebbles and covered with a mound of clean sand, capped with larger quartzite stones. The burial was dated by radiocarbon to 170 cal BC-cal AD 30. <1>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 4279 6630 (10m by 10m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC46NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	DURNESS

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