Quoyness chambered cairn is a Neolithic burial monument located on the island of Sanday in Orkney, Scotland. Similar to Maeshowe in design, the tomb was probably built around 3000 BC. The skeletal remains of several people were uncovered in the tomb during excavation in 1867. The monument was partially restored and reconstructed after a second excavation during the early 1950s, to display the different original stages of construction of the tomb. The property is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
Quoyness chambered cairn
Quoyness chambered cairn entrance
Image: Quoyness chambered cairn interior
Vere Gordon Childe was an Australian archaeologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. He spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, working as an academic for the University of Edinburgh and then the Institute of Archaeology, London. He wrote twenty-six books during his career. Initially an early proponent of culture-historical archaeology, he later became the first exponent of Marxist archaeology in the Western world.
Childe in the 1930s
From 1919 to 1921, Childe worked for the leftist politician John Storey as his personal assistant.
Neolithic dwellings at Skara Brae in Orkney, the site excavated by Childe 1927–30
The Neolithic passage tomb of Maes Howe on Mainland, Orkney, excavated by Childe 1954–55