Skara Brae
 Prehistoric Britain |
Lying on the Atlantic coast of Mainland Orkney, just above the Bay of Skaill, is the remarkably well-preserved Stone Age settlement of Skara Brae, Britain's own Pompeii. Over 5000 years old the Neolithic village was abandoned to the elements in about 2500BC, after more than 500 years of occupation. The intervening centuries witnessed the drifting sand dunes of Skaill Bay slowly but surely bury the village, and so it remained until a ferocious storm in the winter of 1850 revealed the Stone Age remains to modern man.
Skara Brae is the quintessential Stone Age site with absolutely no metal accoutrements of any description being discovered there. As the original turf roofs have long since vanished, visitors are able to look down upon the village layout and see clearly how the eight dwellings are inter-linked with connecting passages.
Each dwelling reveals a central hearth used for cooking and heating. Box beds made of upright slabs are located around the walls - bracken, heather and animal skins would have provided the bedding. Personal possessions were either placed in recesses or displayed on stone shelves, while each hut displays a dresser constructed from flag stone shelves and stone supports. The inner walls reveal larger alcoves beneath which are primitive drains or soak-aways, these may well have provided toilet facilities.
Before abandoning their settlement, the construction of which predate both the Pyramids and Stonehenge, it is very clear that the occupants of Skara Brae fulfilled orderly and well defined roles within the community for many centuries. They were essentially farmers, hunters and fishermen as revealed by the sheep and cow bones, shellfish and the remnants of burnt grain discovered on site during the excavations of 1972/3. Amongst the inhabitants too were skilled craftsmen in both bone and stone, as many of the artefacts found in situ testify - pottery, tools and weaponry were elaborately decorated.
That such a community could flourish for so long in such an exposed position reminds us that during this period of mankind?s development the climate in Britain was more favourable than that experienced today. The skies were consistently clearer with far less rain, the days hot by present day standards and the seas warmer. The existence of the dwellings at Skara Brae, so remarkably well preserved thanks to their being entombed in sand, presents a fascinating picture of life in Neolithic Britain.