Cladh Hallan is an ancient settlement on South Uist, notable for mummified bodies that were preserved and later reburied.
Two bodies were buried together at Cladh Hallan whose owners had died three hundred years apart. One man died around 1600 BC and one woman around 1300 BC, and neither was put in the ground until about 1120 BC.
What happened in between is what makes this site unique in Britain. Both bodies had been placed in a peat bog shortly after death, left there for something between six and eighteen months — long enough to fix the tissue, short enough to lift them out intact — and then retrieved. They appear to have been set up inside a dwelling afterwards, presumably for religious reasons, and buried only centuries later.
Nowhere else in Great Britain has produced a prehistoric mummy at all. These also differ from bog bodies in two ways that point the same direction: most bog bodies were simply interred in the bog, while these were put there deliberately to preserve them; and unlike most bog bodies, their soft tissue no longer survives.
None of it was obvious at the time of discovery. The four skeletons found in 2001 had decomposed and been buried in the ordinary way, and it took laboratory testing rather than observation to establish what had been done to them. Excavation at the site ran from 1988 to 2002 and showed occupation from 2000 BC.
Why the burial came four or five hundred years after the preservation is not known, and no explanation has been established.
What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.
History
Cladh Hallan on South Uist is the only place in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. Excavations ran there between 1988 and 2002 and showed the site was occupied from 2000 BC. Nowhere else in Britain has produced a prehistoric mummy at all. In 2001 a team found four skeletons. One was a male who had died around 1600 BC and another a female who had died around 1300 BC — three centuries apart, and buried together. Two people three centuries apart in the same grave is not something that happens by accident.
The researchers did not at first realise what they had. The soft tissue had decomposed and the skeletons had been buried in the ordinary way, so nothing about the burials themselves announced that these bodies had been treated. Which is why the discovery took testing rather than observation to make. Testing changed the picture. Neither body was buried until about 1120 BC, and both had been preserved shortly after death by placing them in a peat bog for somewhere between six and eighteen months. Six to eighteen months in peat is long enough to fix the tissue and short enough to lift the body out intact.
They were then taken out of the bog again. The preserved bodies appear to have been retrieved and set up inside a dwelling, presumably for reasons that were religious, and only buried centuries later. A preserved body kept above ground is an object, not a burial, and that distinction is the whole significance of the site. Why the burial came so long afterwards is not known. A gap of four to five hundred years between preservation and interment is the central puzzle of the site and no explanation has been established. Four or five centuries is longer than the recorded history of most British buildings.
These skeletons differ from bog bodies in two important ways. Most bog bodies were simply interred in the bog; these were placed there deliberately to preserve them. And unlike most bog bodies, their soft tissue no longer survives at all. Both differences point the same way, towards deliberate preparation rather than accidental preservation.
Cultural influences
-
Deliberate placement in peat preserved bodies that were later retrieved and buried centuries after death.
Connections
-
South Uist
Cladh Hallan is an archaeological site on the island of South Uist.
-
Scotland
The Cladh Hallan finds are being analysed in laboratories in Scotland, England and Wales.
Discovery & excavation
Excavation in 2001 found four skeletons; laboratory analysis identified two as prehistoric mummies preserved in peat before later burial.
What to look for
-
Britain's only prehistoric mummies
This is the only place in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found.
-
Bodies preserved, then kept
Two of the four skeletons found in 2001 had been placed in a peat bog for six to eighteen months after death, then retrieved and set up inside a dwelling — preservation as a deliberate act rather than an accident of burial.
-
Centuries between death and burial
One man died about 1600 BC and one woman about 1300 BC, but neither was buried until around 1120 BC. Why is not known.
-
How they differ from bog bodies
Unlike most bog bodies, these were put in the bog specifically to preserve them, and their soft tissue no longer survives.
Plan your visit
- Location
- 57.1712°N · 7.4076°W
- Time needed
- About 90 minutes
Nearby places
Fortified place · Iron Age
Dun Vulan
Outer Hebrides
On the southern edge of a promontory in South Uist stand the oval walls of Dun Vulan, known in Scottish Gaelic as Dùn Mhùlan or Dùn Mhaoilinn. The…
- Some walking
Fortified place · Medieval
Calvay Castle
Outer Hebrides
A ruined castle occupies a small islet off the island of Calbhaigh, at the eastern approaches to Loch Boisdale on South Uist, reached only by a cau…
Fortified place · Medieval
Ormacleit Castle
Outer Hebrides
A T-plan, two-storey mansion house on South Uist, Ormacleit Castle stood as the seat of Clanranald for barely a decade before fire reduced it to th…
Fortified place · Medieval
Kisimul Castle
Outer Hebrides
In 2001 the chief of Clan MacNeil leased Kisimul Castle to Historic Scotland for 1000 years, for an annual rent of £1 and a bottle of whisky. The a…
The setting
The grassy settlement mounds at Cladh Hallan.
Photo: Hugh Venables / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Machair beside Loch Hallan near Cladh Hallan.
Photo: Colin Smith / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
A dried-up lochan near Cladh Hallan.
Photo: Mick Garratt / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Track leading to Loch Hallan near Cladh Hallan.
Photo: AlastairG / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Questions people ask
- Why is Cladh Hallan significant?
- It is the only place in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been found. Nowhere else in Britain has produced one at all.
- What should a reader focus on?
- The composite burials. Four skeletons were found in 2001, among them a man who died about 1600 BC and a woman who died about 1300 BC, buried together three centuries apart.
- How certain is the interpretation?
- The excavations of 1988 to 2002 and the dating are published. Because the soft tissue had decomposed and the bodies were buried conventionally, the treatment was not recognised at first.
Sources
The Ancient Codex, in your pocket
Get the Pocket Codex app
Carry the directory with you — Cladh Hallan and thousands of ancient places across Britain and Ireland, offline, wherever you roam.