Part I – Scotland: Stone Age Sites of Britain
See Also:
Part II – England: Stone Age Sites of Britain
Part III – Wales, Channel Islands and Other Stong Age Sites of Britain
Skara Brae – Neolithic Settlement – Wikipedia
Paleolithic (2.6 million B.C. – 10,000 B.C.): The first evidence of a human ancestor living in Britain comes from a set of 50 fossilized footprints left in an ancient streambed near the town of Happisburgh in County Norfork, England, about 850,000-950,000 B.C. These early arrivals to Britain would have come at a time when most of Britain was connected to mainland Europe via a now submerged area of the North Sea, known as Doggerland. The Paleolithic was a time of monumental fluctuations in climate, that led to significant sea level variation, vegetation and animal life changes, and the spread and retreat of giant glacial icefields. These changes also affected the spread and retreat of early human populations, and it appears at times the complete depopulating of Britain.
Most of the evidence gathered to date comes from preserved human and animal remains, and stone tool fragments.
Video:
Doggerland Time Team Documentary (BBC)
Mesolithic (11,000 to 5,500 B.C.): The Mesolithic in Britain is marked by the first permanent habitation of Britain by modern humans, and a gradual warming of the climate that saw a change in the landscape from Arctic tundra, to one more temperate that brought about the rapid spread of birch, pine and alder forests. The Mesolithic also saw the final submergence of Doggerland, making Britain into the island it is today.
Neolithic (4,300 – 2,000 BC): As one might imagine, the Neolithic period offers the best-preserved evidence of stone age peoples in Britain, and there are a number of archaeological sites open to the public that offer beautiful examples of the buildings and monuments they constructed. These structures are due in large part to a fundamental shift in the human story, from primitive hunter-gathers to settlement builders focused more and more on agriculture and cattle herding. With the shift to a more stable food supply, Britain also saw a growth in its population and the appearance of permanent settles and buildings designed to last.
ORKNEY NEOLITHIC SITES
While it seems counterintuitive today, given its remoteness in modern Britain, the Orkney Islands were a center of human activity during the Neolithic. The Orkney’s offer some of the most extensive and well-preserved evidence of human habitation, and monument building in all of Britain. Part of this undoubtedly had to do with the building materials the inhabitants of these islands were forced to use in constructing their dwellings. The climate then and now simply didn’t offer easy access to wood and other less durable materials that would have been used by Neolithic farmers in other parts of Britain. Also, it is believed from the geologic evidence that the Orkney’s were one of the first ice-free parts of northern Britain and given their connection to the rest of Europe because of lower sea-levels, would have been a logical place for early fisherman and hunters to migrate to. Not only that but the Gulf Stream, a permanent warm current pattern in the North Atlantic, which today keeps parts of northern Europe much warmer than other places at a similar latitude, made the Orkney’s in Neolithic times much milder than they otherwise would have been.
Articles:
Neolithic discovery: why Orkney is the centre of ancient Britain
National Geographic – Scotland’s Stone Age Ruins
Current Archaeology – Orkney’s First Farmers
SKARA BRAE (Find it), is a Neolithic village discovered on Mainland Island, in the Orkney Archipelago of Scotland. What I find interesting about Skara Brae, is that it’s perfectly suited to the harsh environment in which it was built. Devoid of trees, unlike most of Britain, and regularly buffeted by winds, the Neolithic villagers built their huts into the surrounding earth, reinforced them with stone, and connected each of the huts with passageways to the rest of the village. This in effect minimized to the extent possible, the impact the weather had on their living conditions while indoors.
Occupied from about 3000 B.C. to 2500 B.C., Skara Brae is older than both Stone Henge and the Pyramids of Egypt and is considered the best preserved Neolithic village in Scotland.
Seven of the dwellings incorporate various pieces of stone furniture (beds, dressers, storage bins, cupboards, and seats), and also included a fairly sophisticated drainage network, with a rudimentary toilet in each dwelling. The Eighth building in the village is thought to have been more of a workshop for creating tools and other implements.
Related Websites
Discovery of Skara Brae
Skara Brae Official Website
Video:
Short Tour of Skar Brae
NESS OF BRODGAR (Find It). Located about six miles south of Skara Brae, the area around the Ness of Brodgar was a focal point of Neolithic activity. Its situated on a narrow strip of land between two lakes, the Loch of Stenness, and the Loch of Harray. To the south are the Standing Stones of Stennes, and to the north is the Ring of Brodgar. The archaeological evidence suggests that the Ness of Brodgar was a Neolithic temple, that in one location had a wall that was more than 20 feet thick. The temple was built around 3,300 B.C. and abandoned about a thousand years later. At least 14 structures have been identified at the site, with most built roughly during the same time frame. Geophysical evidence suggests that only about 10% of the site has been unearthed so far. So much remains to be discovered.
There is some debate about what events led to the site’s abandonment. Part of what scientists have learned is that a giant feast appears to have occurred at the site shortly before the abandonment. There also appears to have been a deliberate attempt to cover the site over with dirt. This might suggest a monumental event occurred, such as a fundamental shift in the social order, religious beliefs, or occupation of the island by a new group of people. Given its abandonment close to the accepted beginning of the Bronze age, it’s possible that technological changes were a significant driver in what happened.
Video:
Ness of Brodgar 2017 Archaeological Dig
PBS Newshour Report
RING OF BRODGAR (Find It) is a henge, similar in nature to Stonehenge, that was erected on Mainland Island in the Orkneys between 2,500-2,000 B.C., more than a thousand years after most of the Neolithic buildings and monuments found nearby. The stones are vertically set in a ditch that is more than 1,250 ft in circumference. The general view is that henges were created by Neolithic peoples, either for a ritualistic purpose or for astronomical observations. The importance of astronomical events, in particular, the marking of the Winter Solstice has been incorporated into other monuments, like passage tombs, which are a common feature of Neolithic Britain.
BARNHOUSE SETTLEMENT (Find It) was a Neolithic settlement of 15 houses built around 3,000 B.C., just south of the Ness of Brodgar on the shore of Loch Harray. Barnhouse shares many similarities in its design with Skara Brae. One way it differs, however, is that unlike Skara Brae its houses were free-standing structures, rather than encased in mounds of earth. A few notable items about this village is that it appears to have been deliberately destroyed in about 2,600 B.C. A later building was also built on the site built on top of the site, whose entrance aligns with another important Neolithic monument nearby, the passage tomb of Maeshowe.
MAESHOWE (Find it) is a Neolithic passage tomb built on Mainland Island, not far from a number of Neolithic sites on the island. Its called a passage tomb because its built with a series of monolithic stones, similar to those used in Neolithic henges. Some of the stones in Maeshowe are estimated to weigh up to 20 tonnes. The stones form a passage into the tomb that is in alignment with specific astronomical events, like the Summer and Winter Solstices. Thus on the date of the Winter Solstices, the light from the sun shines on a stone placed at the back of the tomb.
Passage tombs are a common feature in Neolithic Britain, Ireland, as well as along the Atlantic coast of Europe, and even parts of northern Africa. Maeshowe appears to share similar design elements to the most famous passage tomb of all, New Grange in Ireland. This seems to suggest a cultural linkage between the two regions, which isn’t all that surprising given the long history of interaction between Scotland and Ireland.
Websites:
OrkneyJar: Maeshowe
Undiscovered Scotland: Maeshowe
Video: 3D Animation of Maeshowe
Article: Were Neolithic Tombs Telescopes to View the Stars?
KNAP OF HOWAR (Find it), is a Neolithic farmstead located on one of the smaller islands in the Orkney Archipelago, Papa Westray. It is the oldest known stone building in Britain. Radiocarbon dating suggests it was occupied for more than 500 years, beginning in 3,700 B.C. Evidence from rubbish piles (or middens) near the site suggest the inhabitants raised cattle, sheep, and pigs, farmed wheat and barley and harvested shellfish from the ocean.
Like Skara Brae, this farmstead was designed to maximize protection from the elements. Both buildings were made of stone, and surrounded by earth. Such construction would have offered excellent protection from the wind and insulation from the cold.
Video:
Short Tour of Knap Howar
STANDING STONES OF STENNESS (Find It)
CALLANISH STONES
CLAVA CAIRNS
Cairnpapple Hill
Suggested Reading:
Britain Begins – Barry Cunliffe
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland – Bryan Sykes