Skara Brae

rob_fmttm said:
"It was occupied from 3180-2500BC, predating the pyramids & #Stonehenge."
live peering into Middle earth - Bilbo's house - Incredible I think how similar it could be to a crofters cottage - there are recesses top and bottom were beds would have been. There is a central hearth/fire place. Cupboards and even a dresser.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1331556894515863552
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I think they mean 2500BC, but i'd love to go and have a look. Used to visit daughter when she was at Aberdeen and see the Orkney ferry, used to think I'm going there .....

Still thinking about it ....
 
Ah man, you're making me envious! We were supposed to be heading there this summer until Covid intervened. Definitely on my list when the plague has cooled its heels.
 
HarryVegas said:
Ah man, you're making me envious! We were supposed to be heading there this summer until Covid intervened. Definitely on my list when the plague has cooled its heels.
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Me too. We were due to go there in October and hopefully see the Northern Lights, but Covid put paid to that. Pencilled in for next year.
 
Isn't there an almost duplicate in the South somewhere? Somehow there was a form of communication.

I wonder what technology they had.
 
Same_as_before said:
Isn't there an almost duplicate in the South somewhere? Somehow there was a form of communication.

I wonder what technology they had.
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Boats?

I'm sure I saw a programme once that said that the way we view the country today - power based in the South--was the opposite of how it was in the bronze/iron age
 
This is Neolithic - or new stone age. And of course the settlement was built of stone because that was the material that was at hand No trees on Orkney. Yes, recent thinking is the culture might have spread from the north to the south.
It is really unusual for stone to be used as building material like this which has really helped its survival, that and it was buried under sand etc. But it was so successful - the settlement lasted for hundreds of year (3180-2500BC) and it was not fortified, presumably there was no need.
Some houses have been found in our region that possibly have similar spaces inside for beds, hearths and cupboards etc but not being made of stone they can only be inferred from patterns of post holes etc.
 
But they were a farming community rather than a fishing village. Funnily enough once they started farming a lot of prehistoric people in Britain largely stopped eating fish. Or was it the other way around?
 
rob_fmttm said:
But they were a farming community rather than a fishing village. Funnily enough once they started farming a lot of prehistoric people in Britain largely stopped eating fish. Or was it the other way around?
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Remember seeing them dig into a 'shell midden' on Time Team with loads of oyster and mussel shells but a perfunctory check seems to suggest they were Mesolithic so more 'hunter gatherer', i.e. pre farming.
 
We had a week on Orkney last year and it’s quiet and peaceful but loads of history and things to see.

You can see the Northern Lights because there is hardly any light pollution - there is an Orkney Aurora Facebook site which keeps an eye on the conditions, we were there the last two weeks of August and you could see them.

As well as Skara Brae there are a number of other world class archaeological sites, if they were in England they would be completely overrun with tourists so it’s good that they hard to get to.

Two distilleries as well, be rude not to...

Its a hell of a drive but it’s worth it 👍
 
Recent digs at the Ness of Brodgar - are completely rewriting the prehistory books and not just of Orkney. Having the technology, vision and skills to build almost mega structures over 3000 years ago is meaning that they might have to rethink many of the other dates where people started to settle and farm and live and work together.
 
Spent a day on Orkney with work about ten years ago, briefly visited our office in stromness then did a whistle stop tour including ring of Brodgar, skara brae, st Magnus cathedral, bishops palace and then down to Scarpa flow and the Churchill barriers and the beautiful Italian chapel made by the pow’s so they could worship.

would love to go back again

Resisted temptation to visit twatt and take a selfie against the village road sign though. That would have been very childish.
 
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