The social networks that connected these communities would have been networks for the transmission of cultural practices as well as genetic ancestry.

The funerary traditions of the Iron Age north Scottish coast, including whatever traditions of post-mortem body treatment are represented at Loch Borralie, may have been part of the shared cultural heritage maintained within these maritime networks.

If similar practices were occurring on Orkney or in other connected communities, the specific evidence from Loch Borralie would represent one expression of a more distributed tradition.

The isotope evidence from the study, while not the primary focus of the published paper’s interpretation, can also contribute information about the geographic origins of the individuals buried at Loch Borralie.