Iron Age leisure time at The Cairns

The Cairns site in South Ronaldsay, Orkney, has its fair share of spectacular pieces, such as the carved whalebone vessel, but it is the small finds that provide a glimpse into the ordinary everyday existence of people during the Iron Age.

There are quite a large number of small carved discs from the site, and these are usually interpreted as gaming pieces, or gaming counters in the academic literature of the Iron Age period.

If this is indeed what they were then they’re a really interesting insight into the “leisure” time or social lives of the Iron Age inhabitants of the site.

Most of these counters have come from the later post-broch Iron Age or Pictish levels of the site.

They are usually small, well-made sandstone discs or counters (although we have a whale-tooth example as well), and are similar to modern draughts counters. Occasionally, there are taller, upright pieces like one in the photo at the top, made from a black shale material such as lignite, cannel coal or even jet.

Martin Carruthers, site director, said: “Perhaps these were used in another game, or maybe these are the King/Queen pieces in the game. There are only a very few more like this one from Scottish Iron Age sites, such as Scalloway in Shetland.

“One of the things we’d love to find would be one of the stone plaques or slabs with incised gridlines that appear to have been the boards that the game was played on. These have been found on a few Iron Age sites – we can only hope for one turning up in a future season!”

The final picture shows a nicely carved sandstone “counter” and a smooth, conglomerate pebble. The pebble is perhaps more doubtful as a gaming piece, but it was found next to the carved one and it was certainly selected and brought to the site by human hand. Both pieces were found next to the central hearth in Structure E – one of our Late Iron Age buildings.

Perhaps in your mind’s eye you can imagine a winter’s evening with a family group gathered around the fire, using these pieces to play a game, while outside the wind howls over the Orkney landscape.