When you visit Scara Brae on Orkney you are made aware that
Scara Brae is “Older than the Pyramids, older than the Great Wall of China,
older than the Incas or Aztecs”. It is 5000 years old, which in itself is very
cool, but if you didn’t know better, you could be left thinking that this is
the oldest settlement in the world.
Of course there are older sites, the Lascaux cave art in
France is dated at 14,000 BC and some Australian Aboriginal cave paintings are
40,000 – 70,000 years old.
Scara Brae is significant because it is 5000 years old; a
complete village and is so well preserved.
Scara Brae is a neolithic, new stone age village that was
uncovered (it was buried in sand) in 1850 during a storm. It is a village that
was largely intact with workshops and tools; homes with furniture, running
water and in-home food preservation devices. It is a series of eight
interconnected dwellings accessed through small tunnels. The homes had a bed on either side of the room, a
fire place in the middle. Opposite the door was a shelving unit and a series of
small pits lined with stone, containing sea water to preserve meat.
Scara Brae was occupied from 3180 to 2500 BC. Archaeologists
believe it is so well preserved because:
a)
It was buried for thousands of years and only
recently discovered.
b)
Because Orkney does not have trees and the
bronze age had not commenced, stone was used for all furniture, tools, building
products, etc.
c)
The Orkney neolithic communities were all
located on or very close to volcanic plugs. The igneous rocks that the
communities used were all hard and therefore have not eroded.
d)
Human impact is low because population is low.
Not far down the road another archaeological dig is
currently underway at the Ness of Brodgar. This site covers over 6 acres and
contain evidence of large stone buildings. This dig is seeking to answer questions
that will enhance our understanding on how the neolithic community lived.
Whilst at Scara Brae, an archaeologist shared with us the
geophys / LIDAR graphical reports of the area. The reports show a potentially
significant site to the south immediately neighbouring Scara Brae. This site is
protected. Currently there are no plans
for further assessment beyond the Ness of Brodgar, but when this work is
exhausted it is likely that another dig could be on this site. The archaeological
season I short in Scotland, the weather only allows two months of digging
before the site is covered in tarps until the next season. This gives 10 months
to analyse the finds before the next digging season begins.
Like Stonehenge in England, Orkney has many standing stones.
The Ring of Brodgar is Orkney’s largest henge. It originally had 60-72 stones all
laid out in a large circle. Each stone weighed 5 to 6 tonne and was dragged on
kelp from where it was quarried, sometimes miles away. Each stone was then
placed in the circle facing the place that the rock originated from. It is
believed that the Ring of Brodgar, was an all of Orkney community project, as
villagers brought stone from their own quarries. These stones were all patterned.
The interesting thing for me is that this questions written language.
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