The finding was made while undergoing groundworks for the expansion of the SaxaVord Spaceport on the Lamba Ness peninsula in Unst, Shetland which is the UK’s highest point of latitude. 

The spaceport will be for commercial use, offering customers launch site operations, a ground station network, high payloads-per-satellite, and in-orbit data collection and analysis. 

Before reaching for the future of space, SaxaVord now has to reckon with history down here on planet Earth. The company is now working closely with AOC Archaeology to uncover the history behind its find. 

Experts estimate the remains could date back to around 2200-1800 BC, although excavation is still in its early stages. The site contained pits, large boulders, and deposits of burnt bone which are consistent with the remnants of cremations. 

Experts also uncovered a quartz setting, which is a significant element in prehistory and is an element often linked to burial tombs, as well as rock art panels and domestic sites. 

“I’ve always suspected that some of Shetland’s rings of boulders and low stones found could in fact be Bronze Age cremation cemeteries, so it is hugely exciting to be proved right,” said Dr Val Turner, Shetland’s regional archaeologist.

She says that the Bronze Age is one of the least understood periods in the region’s history. “With the modern techniques available now, we can potentially find out far more about the individuals who lived and died here than we could have discovered even 20 years ago,” she said. 

The findings will not impede the development of the spaceport, according to SaxaVord CEO Frank Strang.

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“This is a tremendously exciting discovery and we will be supporting further study of the remains to find out the full story,” he said. 

“With Unst’s Viking heritage, we had always thought of the timespan from the longship to the spaceship. Now we know there has been activity on our site for more than 4,000 years it’s the Bronze Age to the Space Age!” 

According to Katie O’Connell of AOC Archaeology, a number of carefully selected stones were used to create the bright white platform.

There are also large Skaw granite boulders which are local to the area which would have been aligned to form a broad arc.

According to her, other large pits are scattered around the area, which suggests multiple uses of the site over time.

“Though excavation is only beginning, there may be a relation between the large stones, alignments of pits, the quartz setting, and the cremation cemetery, suggesting that together these form part of a ritual complex,” she said.