Description

Incomplete stone macehead, with the perforation hardly begun. Of speckled black rock (marl?) and egg-shaped. Typically associated with the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age, the association with the Brough of Birsay in the Hunterian's documentation is a little surprising, as the tidal island is conventiuonally thought to have been occupied between the 6th and 12th Centuries AD; to this end, it is notable that the original inscription on the macehead itself simply reads "Birsay, Orkney".

Object Number

GLAHM:B.1914.554

Object Name/Type(s)

macehead

Material

stone

Other Identifier(s)

Cursiter Collection Label

344

Dimensions

Height

None recorded.

Width

None recorded.

Provenance & Acquisition

Collection / Collected By

Cursiter, Mr James Walls

Collection Method

None recorded.

Locality

Brough of Birsay, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland

Acquisition

Mr Andrew Henderson Bishop (Donor) 1914