Posted on 03/20/2018 12:35:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists have identified the site of a huge Iron Age feast on Orkney where more than 10,000 animals were cooked and eaten in a vast cliff top celebration. Tests have shown that horses, cattle, red deer and otters were on the menu at the gathering above Windwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, more than 1,700 years ago... A large number of jewellery fragments and tools have already been discovered at the site, where the remains of an Iron Age broch and metalworking site can be found, with recent radiocarbon tests carried out at a midden -- or rubbish tip -- nearby. Examination has identified the cooked bones of around 10,000 animals in the dump. Martin Carruthers, an Iron Age expert at UHI... said the event was likely to maintain and reinforce the structure of Iron Age society on the island at a time when Romans could be found further south on the mainland. A large rectangular building with a huge central hearth, similar to the 'Wag' structures found in Caithness, can also be found at The Cairns. This imposing building dates to around the time of the feasting event and perhaps represents the residence of a powerful household who organised the production and distribution of the valuable jewellery pieces... The broch at The Cairns is known to have fallen out of use around the middle of the Second Century AD. Later, two iron-working furnaces were set up at the site and more than 60 moulds used to cast fine bronze objects have been found at The Cairns over time. These were used to cast a variety of objects ranging from simple bronze rings, to distinctive decorated dress pins and penannular brooches -the open-ring, cloak brooches that are sometimes referred to as Celtic brooches.
(Excerpt) Read more at scotsman.com ...
Sure beats the all-you-can-eat buffet at Hoss’.
I thought Otterman was in Turkey.
I'd speculate that both the food and the people came from outside, a one-time thing, perhaps their last big blowout before a rematch with the Romans, and before they found out that the Roman emperor had withdrawn the army from Caledonia.
They went down to the beach, where the boats were, as if getting ready to embark.
But they were just stallion.
“the Ottoman Empire. Like, what was this? A whole empire based on putting your feet up?” — Jerry Seinfeld
Elizabeth I used state visits as a weapon against nobles she suspected of intrigue. They had a hard time plotting while she, and her retinue were at their home, and so long as she stayed tradition and honor demanded that they lay out kingly, umm, queenly, feasts and entertainment. By the time she left they were too busy staving off creditors to indulge in plotting.
Well, feasting and economic depletion works too, and it’s sure a lot less bloody!
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