tidy sum Robert Graves date back to Neolithic time have been found on two islands off the Scottish coast , but archaeologists are n’t really sure why they exist . In a newspaper publisher print in theJournal of Archaeological Method and Theory , researchers have put forward a new ( and controversial ) possibility suggesting ancient tsunamis could be to blame .
Harlan Stone cairnsfound on Orkney and Shetland are some of the most prolific survive infrastructure from the Neolithic catamenia . They were used as repositories for the dead , with some containing more than 300 skeletal system . Yet , while the consensus come along to be that these were internet site of religious practice , no one really knows for sure .
Now , Genevieve Cain , a graduate at the University of Oxford , and co - worker have compared characteristics of these website to mass burials in other component part of the world , discover evidence to indicate they are , in fact , volume graves built in the backwash of a instinctive cataclysm , specifically a tsunami .
Tsunamis most frequently take place around tectonic home plate ( think : Japan , Indonesia , and Central America ) but they can , on occasion , go on in Northwestern Europe , including land site in the UK . These are unremarkably triggered by underwater landslide , like the Storegga chute ( 8,400 to 2,200 old age ago ) . The incident highlighted in the paper , theGarth tsunami , occurred roughly 5,500 years ago .
“ If it did deluge Shetland and Orkney as we think , then it likely affected the legal age of the coastal community – and to be honest , most of the communities in the islands are coastal , ” said James Goff , co - author and accessory prof at the University of New South Wales , New Scientistreports .
In the paper , the researcher say " the nature , chronology and location " of the burial site fits with the Garth tsunami hypothesis . They also point out certain commonalities between tsunami - related mass burials that seem to defy time and place – for example , the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 1896 Sanriku tsunami . These comparisons show that these flock inhumation can usually be found by the sea-coast , in shallow trenches or pits , and are carry out with little to no thought to spiritual and cultural sensibility . Also , because the most rough-cut cause of death in a tsunami - type scenario is suffocation , there may be short to no strong-arm sign of trauma on the frame .
At this stagecoach , the hypothesis is only speculative and there are reason to remain questioning . For instance , as Rebecca Crozier from the University of Aberdeen toldNew Scientist , the architecture of the tombs are advanced , which would indicate they are the ware of careful provision and not a induce mass burial .
The next steps are to seek for any nautical microorganisms that might be lurking in the burials , hint the people cash in one’s chips from drowning . As the report authors mention : " The argumentation here is not that every mass burying is tsunami - touch on , but that in a coastal setting in particular , there is the danger of not considering it and , as such , misinterpreting much about human - environment interaction in prehistory . "
