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MHG981 - Chambered cairn - Tulloch of Assery A

Summary

No summary available.

Type and Period (1)

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Full Description

A well-preserved, short, horned cairn (Cat 69) one, probably the earlier of the two chambered cairns known as the Tullochs of Assery (see also ND06SE 16).
Visited by OS 3 November 1964;

The cairn was Scheduled in 1938.

The cairn was excavated by J.X.W.P. Corcoran in 1961 for the Ministry of Works, in advance of the raising of the level of Loch Calder. This evealed an apparently unique plan of two chambers set back to back and approached by passages through the north and south facades. <1>

Finds from the excavation are in NMAS.
NMAS 1977.

Corcoran's excavation remains open but otherwise the cairn is well-preserved although the waters of the loch lap the margins and have caused some damage.
Visit by OS 17 August 1981.

See link below for radiocarbon dates. They were first published (uncalibrated) by Sharples in 1986. The excavations when the samples were taken were undertaken in 1961, however, as radiocarbon dating was expensive and time consuming at this time, it was not until 1980 that radiocarbon dating samples from this site and the two others excavated was again considered. The close proximity of this site, Tulloch of Assery B and Tulach an t'Sionnaich and also the great difference in both architecture and burial deposits meant that some chronological guidelines for these three sites could result in a picture of the changing use of chambered tombs in the Britush Isles. <2>

A radiocarbon date from an adult male sample from this site was obtained and published in 2016 for the GENSCOT Ancient DNA project. This indicated a Neolithic date of 3641-3530 BC, calibrated to 1 sigma. <3>

The radiocarbon date and DNA sample information were also included in 'A summary round-up list of Scottish archaeological human remains that have been sampled/analysed for DNA as of January 2019', available online through DES. This also includes references to where the DNA results have been pulished. <4>

A petite tranchet derivative arrowhead of grey flint and a broken piece of a large reddish flint flake (possible part of a knife) are listed in the NMS catalogue under Acc. Nos. EO 1063 and EO 1064. <5>

Human remains from the site are within NMS collections. <6>

Human remains from the site were amongst those included as part of a study into strontium (n = 18) and sulphur (n = 10) isotope analysis of 15 individuals from Scottish Neolithic funerary monuments in Orkney and Caithness, undertaken to assess mobility during the Neolithic. The human remains came from three chambered cairns in Caithness at Tulach an t’Sionnaich (see MHG926), Tulloch of Assery A, and Rattar East (see MHG2268), and from one chambered cairn in Orkney (Quanterness). For most of the individuals the results indicated that they were likely to have been raised in the region where they were interred. One individual from Tulach an t'Sionnaich, an adult male, had values from one of his three sampled teeth that suggested he was raised non-locally though still likely to have been born in Scotland, but in a region with more elevated strontium isotope ratios. Using the strontium isoscape and assignR, the potential regions of origin were examined at two thresholds of probability (25% and 75% quantiles) and suggested that this individual was likely to have come from northern Scotland. These results suggested that the individuals interred in the Neolithic tombs that were studied lived in the same region as those tombs, so could be considered to have lived ‘locally’. This pointed to these tombs being used by geographically constrained local groups and may have reflected the sedentary lifestyle of Neolithic farmers. In order to build a more robust picture of mobility in Neolithic Scotland, more sampling and isotopic analysis would be required. The current study showed the utility of random forest generated isoscapes and the possibilities of combining both strontium and sulphur isotopes for mobility studies. <7>

Human remains from the site were amongst those analysed as part of a study into the genetic relatedness of 22 individuals whose remains were placed in five Early Neolithic tombs in Caithness and Orkney and published in Antiquity Vol. 100 in 2026. Although it was only possible to obtain aDNA sequences suitable for analysis from a subset of the osteological minimum number of individuals (MNI) in each tomb, this was sufficient for the determination of multiple genetic relatives. Rattar East (see MHG2268) contained the remains of two brothers, while a father-son pair and a maternal uncle or half-brother to the father were found in the tomb at Holm of Papa Westray North on Orkney. The remains of three males in a father-son-grandson genetic relationship were placed next to one another at Tulloch of Assery A, while a fourth male who was either an uncle, halfbrother or grandfather to the first of these males was entombed at Tulach an t-Sionnaich (see MHG926). One female fourth-degree relative of this latter male was entombed at the Holm of Papa Westray North, while another fourth-degree relative of this same male was entombed at Tulloch of Assery B (see MHG932). Two of the females entombed at Holm of Papa Westray North were fourth-degree or fourth-to-fifth degree genetic relatives of the male at Tulach an t-Sionnaich, suggesting their genetic ancestry connected both of those males. Thus, these two females were genetically related within five degrees to males from groups who used the tombs at Loch Calder, while not being related (closer than the sixth-to-seventh degree) to any of the three closely related males at Holm of Papa Westray North. Both the similarities in architecture observed across the tombs and the biological relationships identified through aDNA demonstrate a web of connections among the entombed individuals, suggesting they were members of a small interwoven community sharing both architectural and mortuary practices. <8>

Sources/Archives (14)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred ND 0682 6188 (44m by 46m)
Map sheet	ND06SE
Civil Parish	HALKIRK
Geographical Area	CAITHNESS

Finds (3)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

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External Links (7)