Ring-type cairn at Balnauran of Clava

The Clava cairn is a type of Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of 3 cairns at Balnuaran of Clava, to the east of Inverness in Scotland. There are about 50 cairns of this type in an area round about Inverness. They fall into two sub-types, one typically consisting of a corbelled passage grave with a single burial chamber linked to the entrance by a short passage and covered with a cairn of stones, with the entrances oriented south west towards midwinter sunset. In the other sub-type an annular ring cairn encloses an apparently unroofed area with no formal means of access from the outside. In both sub-types a stone circle surrounds the whole tomb and a kerb often runs around the cairn. The heights of the standing stones vary in height so that the tallest fringe the entrance (oriented south west) and the shortest are directly opposite it. Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 594 KB) Ring-type clava cairn at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 594 KB) Ring-type clava cairn at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. ... A cairn to mark the way along a glacier A cairn is a manmade pile of stones. ... Inverness (Inbhir Nis in Scottish Gaelic) is the only city in the Scottish Highlands. ... Timeline of Scottish history Caledonia List of not fully sovereign nations Subdivisions of Scotland National parks (Scotland) Traditional music of Scotland Flower of Scotland Wars of Scottish Independence National Trust for Scotland Historic houses in Scotland Castles in Scotland Museums in Scotland Abbeys and priories in Scotland Gardens in Scotland... In Medieval architecture a corbel or console names a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. ... A passage tomb near the town of Sligo in Ireland A Passage grave (sometimes hyphenated) or Passage tomb is a tomb, usually dating to the Neolithic, where the burial chamber is reached along a distinct, and usually low, passage. ... Jump to: navigation, search A stone circle is a circular space, delimited by purposefully erected stones and often containing burials. ... In archaeology, a kerb or peristalith is the name for a stone ring built to enclose and sometimes revet the cairn or barrow built over a chamber tomb. ...

Where Clava-type tombs have still contained burial remains, only one or two bodies appear to have been buried in each, and the lack of access to the second sub-type suggests that there was no intention of re-visiting the dead or communally adding future burials as had been the case with Neolithic cairn tombs. Jump to: navigation, search The Neolithic, (Greek neos = new, lithos = stone, or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. ...

Balnauran of Clava

Clava cairns at Balnauran of Clava

At Balnauran of Clava itself there is a group of three Bronze Age cairns which lie close together in a line running north east to south west. The tombs at either end are of the passage grave sub-type. The central cairn is of the ring cairn sub-type, and uniquely has stone paths or causeways forming "rays" radiating out from the platform round the kerbs to three of the standing stones. The cairns incorporate cup and ring mark stones, carved before they were built in to the structures. The kerb stones are graded in size and selected for colour, so that the stones are larger and redder to the south west, and smaller and whiter to the north east. All these elements seem to have been constructed as one operation and indicate a complex design rather than ad hoc additions. Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 590 KB) Standing stones and clava cairns at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 590 KB) Standing stones and clava cairns at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... A passage tomb near the town of Sligo in Ireland A Passage grave (sometimes hyphenated) or Passage tomb is a tomb, usually dating to the Neolithic, where the burial chamber is reached along a distinct, and usually low, passage. ... Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found in the upland parts British Isles. ...

Cup marks on the northern cairn at Balnauran of Clava

The ring round the northern Balnauran of Clava cairn was measured and analysed by Professor Alexander Thom. He found that the ring was slightly egg-shaped with a complex geometry of circles and ellipses which could be set out around a central triangle, using sizes which are close to whole multiples of what he called the Megalithic yard. While the geometry of the shape is generally accepted, the Megalithic Yard is more controversial. Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 583 KB) Cup marks in a passage-type clava cairn at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 583 KB) Cup marks in a passage-type clava cairn at Balnauran of Clava near Inverness, Scotland. ... Professor Alexander Thom (1894 - 1985) was a Scottish engineer most famous for his theory of the Megalithic yard. ... The megalithic yard (sometimes abbreviated to MY) is a theoretical unit of prehistoric measurement first suggested by the Scottish engineer, Alexander Thom in 1955. ...

References

• Scotland Before History - Stuart Piggott, Edinburgh University Press 1982, ISBN -07524-1400-3
• Scotland's Hidden History - Ian Armit, Tempus (in association with Historic Scotland) 1998, ISBN 0-7486-6067-4
• Sun, Moon and Standing Stones - John Edwin Wood, Oxford University Press 1978, ISBN 0-19-285089-X

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Clava cairn