What the Loch Borralie burial preserves is not just evidence of individual funerary treatment but evidence of a category of practice that was probably more widespread than the material record suggests, precisely because most of the contexts in which it occurred would not have produced the kind of well-preserved, interpretable bone evidence that northwest Scotland’s environmental conditions allow.

The Juvenile: A Different Story

The contrast between the treatment of Individual 1 — the adult woman — and the treatment of Individual 2 — the juvenile male — is itself one of the most significant aspects of the Loch Borralie findings.

Individual 2 was approximately fifteen years old at the time of his death.

He was buried in the same cairn as Individual 1, in proximity to her remains, and with the same basic burial orientation — heads to the east.

But his skeletal remains show no evidence of the post-mortem modification that characterized her treatment.