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http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/other/display.var.1118440.0.0.php
Macabre secret of ancient cave revealed in TV series
A MORAYSHIRE cave was a place where, in order to show their grief,
parents built the most macabre of memorials.
The heads of their offspring, perished before their time, were severed
and placed on poles at the entrance to the cave, which was a temple to
the dead children.
The secrets of the ancient cave will be revealed next week in a BBC
Scotland television series. It suggests that around 3000 years ago,
people from across the north of Scotland, the islands, and possibly even
Ireland, brought their dead children to Sculptor's Cave, near
Lossiemouth.
Ian Shepherd, an archaeologist, has carried out numerous excavations in
the remote cave. Uncovering skeletal parts from six children, his work
brought to light skull parts in the cave's entrance, which from the way
they lay, indicated there had at one time been fleshy heads on poles.
"From what we can tell, these were simply people mourning their dead
children," Mr Shepherd said. Prior to his discovery of the skull parts in
1979, a previous excavation 50 years before by classical archaeologist
Sylvia Benton found thousands of bone parts - largely from juveniles.
Called the Sculptor's Cave because of ancient inscriptions at the
entrance, the location of the cave has been known since Victorian times,
but it is very remote.
It can only be accessed from the land at low tide along a mile of shingle
beach or by scaling the cliff face. The BBC Scotland production team
accessed it from the water by boat. Three thousand years ago, it might
even have been an island, which would have reinforced its spiritual
status.
Using computer graphics, the series, Art & Soul, will bring the cave back
to life, showing the indicators of its religious significance and delving
into its dark interior, a sacred pool strewn with Bronze Age treasures.
Richard Holloway, presenter of the programme, said: "Our earliest
religions, our earliest rituals, are dark in every sense. This cave on
the Moray coast hides a ghoulish, 3000-year-old secret.
"Getting into the cave from the sea was exhilarating if a little scary,
but it underpinned the amazing sense of this place. It's a story that
both thrills and appals. Yet it seems to demonstrate an early fascination
with what came after death. Three thousand years ago, our ancestors came
to this dark, foreboding cave to consecrate their child-dead."
He added: "In the depths of the cave, there's the first glimpse of the
trapped pool of water - this was the bridge to another world, the high
altar of a Bronze Age basilica.
"The standing stones at Callanish are older but they suggest a multitude
of interpretations, and for me the picture about spirituality and ancient
Scottish religious art becomes clearer in this cave.
"We know this place had spiritual meaning and we know it was decorated by
human hand."
Art & Soul begins on BBC 2 Scotland on Monday at 9pm.
Macabre secret of ancient cave revealed in TV series
A MORAYSHIRE cave was a place where, in order to show their grief,
parents built the most macabre of memorials.
The heads of their offspring, perished before their time, were severed
and placed on poles at the entrance to the cave, which was a temple to
the dead children.
The secrets of the ancient cave will be revealed next week in a BBC
Scotland television series. It suggests that around 3000 years ago,
people from across the north of Scotland, the islands, and possibly even
Ireland, brought their dead children to Sculptor's Cave, near
Lossiemouth.
Ian Shepherd, an archaeologist, has carried out numerous excavations in
the remote cave. Uncovering skeletal parts from six children, his work
brought to light skull parts in the cave's entrance, which from the way
they lay, indicated there had at one time been fleshy heads on poles.
"From what we can tell, these were simply people mourning their dead
children," Mr Shepherd said. Prior to his discovery of the skull parts in
1979, a previous excavation 50 years before by classical archaeologist
Sylvia Benton found thousands of bone parts - largely from juveniles.
Called the Sculptor's Cave because of ancient inscriptions at the
entrance, the location of the cave has been known since Victorian times,
but it is very remote.
It can only be accessed from the land at low tide along a mile of shingle
beach or by scaling the cliff face. The BBC Scotland production team
accessed it from the water by boat. Three thousand years ago, it might
even have been an island, which would have reinforced its spiritual
status.
Using computer graphics, the series, Art & Soul, will bring the cave back
to life, showing the indicators of its religious significance and delving
into its dark interior, a sacred pool strewn with Bronze Age treasures.
Richard Holloway, presenter of the programme, said: "Our earliest
religions, our earliest rituals, are dark in every sense. This cave on
the Moray coast hides a ghoulish, 3000-year-old secret.
"Getting into the cave from the sea was exhilarating if a little scary,
but it underpinned the amazing sense of this place. It's a story that
both thrills and appals. Yet it seems to demonstrate an early fascination
with what came after death. Three thousand years ago, our ancestors came
to this dark, foreboding cave to consecrate their child-dead."
He added: "In the depths of the cave, there's the first glimpse of the
trapped pool of water - this was the bridge to another world, the high
altar of a Bronze Age basilica.
"The standing stones at Callanish are older but they suggest a multitude
of interpretations, and for me the picture about spirituality and ancient
Scottish religious art becomes clearer in this cave.
"We know this place had spiritual meaning and we know it was decorated by
human hand."
Art & Soul begins on BBC 2 Scotland on Monday at 9pm.