The bones were preserved in museum storage following the initial analysis, and the report they generated contributed to the regional archaeological record without generating particular attention beyond the specialist community.

Nothing about the initial assessment suggested that the Loch Borralie cairn was fundamentally different from other Iron Age cairn burials in the region.

What changed when the COMMIOS team applied their multi-strand analytical approach was the ability to distinguish, with precision, between marks made by animal gnawing and marks made by sharp tools wielded by human hands.

This distinction — which can seem simple in principle but requires detailed taphonomic knowledge and careful microscopic analysis to establish reliably — transformed the entire interpretation of the burial.

How Archaeologists Read Bone