Maeshowe
E160359
Maeshowe is a large Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave in Orkney, Scotland, renowned for its sophisticated construction, winter solstice alignment, and runic Viking graffiti.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Maeshowe canonical | 7 |
| Maes Howe | 1 |
| Maes Howe carved stone | 1 |
| Maes Howe chambered cairn | 1 |
| Maeshowe vicinity sites in Orkney | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1353581 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maeshowe Context triple: [Orkney Islands, contains, Maeshowe]
-
A.
Stenness
Stenness is a small village and parish on the Orkney Mainland in Scotland, known for its proximity to major Neolithic sites such as the Standing Stones of Stenness.
-
B.
Callanish Stones
The Callanish Stones are a famous Neolithic stone circle and ritual site on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, dating back to around 3000 BC.
-
C.
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a remarkably well-preserved Neolithic stone village in Orkney, Scotland, dating back over 5,000 years and offering key insights into prehistoric life.
-
D.
Cladh Hallan
Cladh Hallan is a Bronze Age archaeological site on the island of South Uist in Scotland, best known for its unique burials containing deliberately mummified human remains.
-
E.
Machrie Moor stone circles
Machrie Moor stone circles are a group of prehistoric stone circles and standing stones on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, notable for their Bronze Age origins and dramatic moorland setting.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Maeshowe Target entity description: Maeshowe is a large Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave in Orkney, Scotland, renowned for its sophisticated construction, winter solstice alignment, and runic Viking graffiti.
-
A.
Stenness
Stenness is a small village and parish on the Orkney Mainland in Scotland, known for its proximity to major Neolithic sites such as the Standing Stones of Stenness.
-
B.
Callanish Stones
The Callanish Stones are a famous Neolithic stone circle and ritual site on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, dating back to around 3000 BC.
-
C.
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a remarkably well-preserved Neolithic stone village in Orkney, Scotland, dating back over 5,000 years and offering key insights into prehistoric life.
-
D.
Cladh Hallan
Cladh Hallan is a Bronze Age archaeological site on the island of South Uist in Scotland, best known for its unique burials containing deliberately mummified human remains.
-
E.
Machrie Moor stone circles
Machrie Moor stone circles are a group of prehistoric stone circles and standing stones on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, notable for their Bronze Age origins and dramatic moorland setting.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Neolithic chambered cairn
ⓘ
passage grave ⓘ |
| alignedWith | winter solstice sunset ⓘ |
| country |
Scotland
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ |
| estimatedConstructionDate | c. 2800 BCE ⓘ |
| estimatedConstructionPeriod | Neolithic ⓘ |
| excavatedBy | James Farrer ⓘ |
| firstMajorExcavationDate | 1861 ⓘ |
| hasAccessControl | guided tours only ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Maeshowe
ⓘ
surface form:
Maes Howe
Maeshowe ⓘ
surface form:
Maes Howe chambered cairn
|
| hasArchitecturalStyle | Neolithic megalithic architecture ⓘ |
| hasAstronomicalAlignment | winter solstice ⓘ |
| hasCulturalAssociation |
Neolithic farmers
ⓘ
Viking ⓘ
surface form:
Norse Vikings
|
| hasDiameter | about 35 metres ⓘ |
| hasEntranceOrientation | southwest ⓘ |
| hasEntrancePassageLength | about 10 metres ⓘ |
| hasFeature |
central chamber
ⓘ
corbelled roof ⓘ encircling ditch ⓘ long entrance passage ⓘ side cells ⓘ surrounding bank ⓘ |
| hasFunction |
burial monument
ⓘ
ritual site ⓘ |
| hasGraffiti | Viking runes ⓘ |
| hasHeight | about 7 metres ⓘ |
| hasInscriptionLanguage |
Old Norse language
ⓘ
surface form:
Old Norse
|
| hasInteriorChamberSize | about 4.6 metres square ⓘ |
| hasInteriorDecoration | runic inscriptions ⓘ |
| hasMaterial |
stone
ⓘ
turf ⓘ |
| hasPlanShape | roughly circular mound ⓘ |
| hasType |
chambered cairn
ⓘ
passage tomb ⓘ |
| heritageDesignation | Scheduled Monument ⓘ |
| locatedOn |
Orkney Mainland
ⓘ
surface form:
Mainland, Orkney
|
| location | Orkney, Scotland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| managedBy | Historic Environment Scotland ⓘ |
| nearbySite |
Ring of Brodgar
ⓘ
Skara Brae ⓘ Stenness ⓘ
surface form:
Stones of Stenness
|
| openToPublic | true ⓘ |
| partOf |
Orkney archaeological landscape
ⓘ
surface form:
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
|
| UNESCOWorldHeritageSite |
Orkney archaeological landscape
ⓘ
surface form:
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
|
| UNESCOWorldHeritageSiteInscriptionYear | 1999 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Maeshowe Description of subject: Maeshowe is a large Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave in Orkney, Scotland, renowned for its sophisticated construction, winter solstice alignment, and runic Viking graffiti.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Maes Howe carved stone
this entity surface form:
Maeshowe vicinity sites in Orkney
this entity surface form:
Maes Howe
this entity surface form:
Maes Howe chambered cairn