Wheelhouse (archaeology)

A Wheelhouse ( German wheel ) is a mostly round stone of the British Isles, the interior of arranged radially, sometimes very rounded in the outer corners niches surrounded, which are built into the very broad, outer wall either or divided by intermediate walls in front of the wall lie.

The Wheelhouse is a phenomenon of the Scottish Iron Age. In contrast to the Broch, as its predecessor, it is considered, ( Tigh na Fiarnain ), however, is found in the Hebrides and the Shetland Islands in far 62 copies only in Caithness and Sutherland. It should be noted that behind the term hide fundamentally different baustrukturelle findings of up to 10 m in diameter and up to six meters in height.

In the Shetland wheel houses the spokes are built exclusively as dry masonry of relatively small stones that rise on the full room height. In the Atlantic the Western Isles (South Clettraval ) wheel houses consist mainly of radial spokes room dividers that are made of large stones standing on edge. Exceptions such as the Cnip wheelhouse, Valtos, Lewis and Harris prove the rule (If Cnip is a wheelhouse and not a carved in the earth / Midden roundhouse, what it gives different views in the literature ). The Shetland wheel houses in any case are all over in October rising building.

The most famous and best preserved Wheel Houses ( four plants ) are located at the Jarlshof on Mainland (Shetland Island). Part of this wheel houses is considered by some authors as piktisch, although they differ materially from the doubt as piktisch identified cloverleaf-shaped buildings, as in Jarlshof (in the form of the Pictish earth houses ) and on the house Broch of Gurness found ( farm stead ) can be found, which could be reconstructed in comparison with the non-preserved Pictish houses of Buckquoy, Orkney.

Over their useful life, there is no clear ideas as quarry they were partly used to modern times. The Wheel of Houses Allathasdal, Barra and South Uist on Scalavat 1 were associated with a basement, a structure which is to be connected to rituals.

In and wheel houses were found in niches and pits remains of animal and human skeletons, as they took into buildings from all periods to modern times. On the basis of these findings, the function can be derived as cult building.

Apart from their similarity and proximity to the Broch, which are considerably higher, however, remembers its shape both some more oval facilities such as Skara Brae on Orkney, as well as to exact Nordic rotunda as premises of Eketorp or Ismantorp on Öland or to the Anatolian Demircihöyük.