Archaeologists Baffled By A 2,000-Year-Old Skeleton Found In Scotland With Its Brain Scooped Out And Its Bones Turned Into Tools

The cairn that contained the Loch Borralie remains was not a simple heap of stones.

It was a rectangular structure — a specific architectural form that required planning and construction — built from the local limestone and stone of the area.

The rectangular form distinguishes it from the round cairns more typical of the Neolithic period in Scotland and places it within an Iron Age tradition of cairn construction in the region.

The construction of a stone cairn over a burial serves multiple purposes.

At the most practical level, it marks the location of the burial and prevents accidental disturbance of the remains by animals or subsequent human activity in the area.