Unstan ware is the name used byarchaeologists for a type of finely made and decoratedNeolithicpottery from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Typical are elegant and distinctive shallow bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim,[1] a type of decoration which was created using a technique known as "stab-and-drag". A second version consists of undecorated, round-bottomed bowls.[2] Some of the bowls had bits of volcanic rock included in the clay to make them stronger. Bone tools were used toburnish the surfaces to make them shiny and impermeable.[3]
Unstan ware is named after theUnstan Chambered Cairn on theMainland of theOrkney Islands,[4] a fine example of a stalledchambered tomb in a circular mound, where the style of pottery was first found in 1884. Unstan ware is mostly found in tombs, specifically tombs of theOrkney-Cromarty type.[5] These include theTomb of the Eagles at Isbister onSouth Ronaldsay, and Taversoe Tuick andMidhowe onRousay.[6]
Unstan ware has been found occasionally at sites inOrkney other than tombs; for example, the farmstead ofKnap of Howar onPapa Westray.[7] Although more recent excavations in Orkney have found Unstan ware to be a more common feature in a domestic context than previously thought, challenging the interpretation of Unstan ware being mainly from tombs[8] and in theWestern Isles, as atEilean Domhnuill.[9]
Unstan ware may have evolved into the latergrooved ware style. This interpretation was originally based primarily on a presumed evolution in pottery styles, from Unstan ware to grooved ware, seen at the settlement ofRinyo on Rousay. D.V. Clarke claimed in 1983 that his investigations at Rinyo had debunked this sequence.[10] John Hedges is another primary proponent of what might be termed the "cultural coexistence" hypothesis, suggesting that although Unstan ware may predate grooved ware, the cultures associated with these styles of pottery lived side by side across Orkney for centuries.[11] In this interpretation of the evidence, grooved ware is associated with the builders of theMaeshowe class of chambered tomb. The geographic distribution in Orkney of the two pottery types is as follows: grooved ware is found onMainland,Sanday, andNorth Ronaldsay, with Unstan ware found on Mainland and the remaining islands, especially Rousay andEday.[12] Hedges sums up his view this way:
What is important is an understanding that the neolithic population of Orkney can be divided into two major parts on the basis of some elements of their material cultures. It is probable that they originated from different areas and...there is no difficulty in imagining their ability to coexist.[13]
However, he also notes:
One point that should be made at the outset is that there is no discernable difference in the culture- in the social anthropological sense- of the Grooved Ware and Unstan Ware people...it is only apparent from limited aspects of material culture and the evidence...shows it to have been subordinate to a tribal level of unity which took in the whole of Orkney.[14]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)