.jpg) Skara Brae from the entrance gate | |
  Skara Brae Location in Scotland | |
| Location | Scotland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 59°02′55″N3°20′30″W / 59.0487138°N 3.3417499°W /59.0487138; -3.3417499 |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 3180 BC |
| Abandoned | c. 2500 BC |
| Periods | Neolithic |
| Site notes | |
| Discovered | 1850 |
| Ownership | Historic Environment Scotland |
| Public access | Yes |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii, iii, iv |
| Designated | 1999(23rdsession) |
| Part of | Heart of Neolithic Orkney |
| Reference no. | 514 |
| Region | Europe |
| Identifiers | |
| Historic Environment Scotland | SM90276 |
Skara Brae/ˈskærəˈbreɪ/ is a stone-builtNeolithic settlement, located on theBay of Skaill in the parish ofSandwick, on the west coast ofMainland, the largest island in theOrkney archipelago of Scotland. It consisted of ten clustered houses, made offlagstones, in earthen dams that provided support for the walls; the houses included stonehearths, beds, and cupboards.[1] A primitive sewer system, with "toilets" and drains in each house,[2][3] included water used to flush waste into a drain and out to the ocean.[4]
The site was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to around 2500 BC and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. Skara Brae gainedUNESCOWorld Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "TheHeart of Neolithic Orkney". Older thanStonehenge and theGreat Pyramids of Giza, it has been called the "ScottishPompeii" because of its excellent preservation.[5]
Care of the site is the responsibility ofHistoric Environment Scotland which works with partners in managing the site:Orkney Islands Council,NatureScot (Scottish Natural Heritage), and theRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds.[6] Visitors to the site are welcome during much of the year.
Uncovered by a storm in 1850, the coastal site may now be at risk from natural erosion.
In the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths.[7] In theBay of Skaill, the storm stripped earth from a large irregularknoll. (The name Skara Brae is a corruption of Skerrabra or Styerrabrae, which originally referred to the knoll.[3]) When the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village consisting of several small houses without roofs.[7][8] William Graham Watt ofSkaill House,[9] a son of the locallaird who was a self-taughtgeologist, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after four houses were uncovered, work was abandoned in 1868.[10]
The site remained undisturbed until 1913, when during a single weekend, the site was plundered by a party with shovels who took away an unknown quantity of artefacts.[7] In 1924, another storm swept away part of one of the houses, and it was determined the site should be secured and properly investigated.[7] The job was given to theUniversity of Edinburgh's ProfessorVere Childe, who travelled to Skara Brae for the first time in mid-1927.[7]
In 2019, a series of photographs showing Childe and four women at the site of the excavation were re-examined. It had been widely believed that the women were tourists or local women visiting the excavation site, but a note on the back of the photographs identified the women as "4 of [Childe's] lady students", and it seems that they were active participants in the excavation.[11] The women have been tentatively identified asMargaret Simpson (who was acknowledged in Childe's monographs about Skara Brae), Margaret Mitchell, Mary Kennedy, andMargaret Cole.[12]
The inhabitants of Skara Brae were makers and users ofgrooved ware, a distinctive style ofpottery that had recently appeared in northern Scotland.[13] The houses usedearth sheltering: built sunk in the ground, into mounds of prehistoric domestic waste known asmiddens. This provided the houses with stability and also acted as insulation against Orkney's harsh winter climate. On average, each house measures 40 square metres (430 ft2) and has a large square room with a stonehearth used for heating and cooking. Given the number of homes, it seems likely that no more than fifty people lived in Skara Brae at any given time.[14]
It is not clear what material the inhabitants burned in theirhearths. Childe was sure that the fuel waspeat,[15] but a detailed analysis of vegetation patterns and trends suggests climatic conditions conducive to the development of thick beds of peat did not develop in this part of Orkney until after Skara Brae was abandoned.[16] Other possible fuels includedriftwood andanimal dung. There is evidence that driedseaweed was widely used. At some sites in Orkney, investigators have found a glassy, slag-like material called "kelp" or "cramp" which may be residual burnt seaweed.[17]
The dwellings contain several stone-built pieces of furniture, includingcupboards,dressers, seats, and storage boxes. Each dwelling was entered through a low doorway with a stone slab door which could be shut "by a bar made of bone that slid in bar-holes cut in the stone door jambs."[18] Several dwellings offered a small connected antechamber, offering access to a partially covered stone drain leading away from the village. It is suggested that these chambers served as indoor toilets.[19][20][3][21]
Seven of the houses have similar furniture, with the beds and dressers in the same places in each house. The dresser stands against the wall opposite the door and is the first thing anyone entering the dwelling sees. Each of these houses had a larger bed on the right side of the doorway and a smaller one on the left.Lloyd Laing noted that this pattern accorded withHebridean custom up to the early 20th century, suggesting that the husband's bed was the larger and the wife's was the smaller.[22] The discovery of beads and paint pots in some of the smaller beds may support this interpretation. Additional support may come from the recognition that stone boxes are located to the left of most doorways, forcing the person entering the house to turn to the right-hand, "male" side of the dwelling.[23] At the front of each bed lie the stumps of stone pillars that may have supported a canopy of fur, another link with recent Hebridean style.[24]
House 8 has no storage boxes or dressers and has been divided into something resembling small cubicles. Fragments of stone, bone, and antler were excavated, suggesting House 8 may have been used to make tools such as bone needles orflint axes.[25] The presence of heat-damaged volcanic rocks, and what appears to be aflue, supports this interpretation. House 8 is distinctive in other ways as well: it is a stand-alone structure not surrounded by midden;[26] instead it is above ground with walls over 2 metres (6.6 ft) thick and has a "porch" protecting the entrance.
The site provided the earliest known record of thehuman flea (Pulex irritans) in Europe.[27]
TheGrooved Ware People who built Skara Brae were primarilypastoralists who raised cattle, pigs, and sheep.[15] Childe originally believed that the inhabitants did not farm, but excavations in 1972 unearthed seed grains from a midden, suggesting thatbarley was cultivated.[28] Fish bones and shells are common in the midden, indicating that dwellers ate seafood. Limpet shells are common and may have been used as fish bait, kept in stone boxes in the homes.[29] The boxes were formed from thin slabs with joints carefully sealed with clay to render them waterproof.
This pastoral lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to some of the more exotic interpretations of the Skara Brae people's culture. Euan MacKie suggested that Skara Brae might be the home of a privileged theocratic class of wise men who engaged in astronomical and magical ceremonies at nearbyRing of Brodgar and theStanding Stones of Stenness.[30] Graham and Anna Ritchie cast doubt on this interpretation noting there is no archaeological evidence for this claim,[31] although a Neolithic "low road" that goes from Skara Brae passes near both these sites and ends at the chambered tomb ofMaeshowe.[32] Low roads connect Neolithic ceremonial sites throughout Britain.
Originally, Childe believed that the settlement dated from around 500 BC.[15] This interpretation was coming under increasing challenge by the time new excavations in 1972–73 settled the question.Radiocarbon results obtained from samples collected during these excavations indicate that occupation of Skara Brae began about 3180 BC[33] with occupation continuing for about six hundred years.[34] Around 2500 BC, after the climate changed, becoming much colder and wetter, the settlement may have been abandoned by its inhabitants. There are many theories as to why the people of Skara Brae left; particularly popular interpretations involve a major storm. Evan Hadingham combined evidence from found objects with the storm scenario to imagine a dramatic end to the settlement:
As was the case atPompeii, the inhabitants seem to have been taken by surprise and fled in haste, for many of their prized possessions, such as necklaces made from animal teeth and bone, or pins ofwalrus ivory, were left behind. The remains of choice meat joints were discovered in some of the beds, presumably forming part of the villagers' last supper. One woman was in such haste that her necklace broke as she squeezed through the narrow doorway of her home, scattering a stream of beads along the passageway outside as she fled the encroaching sand.[35]
Anna Ritchie strongly disagrees with catastrophic interpretations of the village's abandonment:
A popular myth would have the village abandoned during a massive storm that threatened to bury it in sand instantly, but the truth is that its burial was gradual and that it had already been abandoned – for what reason, no one can tell.[36]
The site was farther from the sea than it is today, and it is possible that Skara Brae was built adjacent to afresh water lagoon protected bydunes.[33] Although the visible buildings give an impression of an organic whole, certainly, an unknown quantity of additional structures had already been lost to sea erosion before the site's rediscovery and subsequent protection by aseawall.[37] Uncovered remains are known to exist immediately adjacent to the ancient monument in areas presently covered by fields, and others, of uncertain date, can be seen eroding out of the cliff edge a little to the south of the enclosed area.
Enigmaticcarved stone balls have been found at the site and some are on display in the museum.[38] Similar objects have been found throughout northern Scotland. The spiral ornamentation on some of these "balls" has been stylistically linked to objects found in theBoyne Valley in Ireland.[39][40] Similar symbols have been found carved into stone lintels and bed posts.[15] These symbols, sometimes referred to as "runic writings", have been subjected to controversial translations. For example, author Rodney Castleden suggested that "colons" found punctuating vertical and diagonal symbols may represent separations between words.[41]
Lumps of redochre found here and at otherNeolithic sites have been interpreted as evidence thatbody painting may have been practised.[42]
Nodules ofhaematite with polished surfaces have been found as well; the shiny surfaces suggest that the nodules were used to finish leather.[43]
Pottery jars with a volume of up to 30 litres were discovered in a number of the Skara Brae dwellings. Analysis of a greenish slime at the bottom of one revealed that it held an alcoholic beverage made of oats and barley, and seasoned with additional hallucinogenic elements, which would be lethal in certain quantities, such as hemlock, deadly nightshade and henbane.[44]
Other artefacts excavated on site made of animal, fish, bird, andwhalebone, whale andwalrus ivory, andorca teeth includedawls, needles, knives,beads,adzes,shovels, small bowls and, remarkably, ivory pins up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long.[45] These pins are similar to examples found inpassage graves in the Boyne Valley, another piece of evidence suggesting a linkage between the two cultures.[46] The eponymousSkaill knife was a commonly used tool in Skara Brae; it consists of a large stone flake, with a sharp edge used for cutting, knocked off a sandstone cobble.[47] This neolithic tool is named after Skara Brae's location in theBay of Skaill onOrkney.[48] Skaill knives have been found throughout Orkney andShetland.
The 1972 excavations reached layers that had remained waterlogged and had preserved items that otherwise would have been destroyed. These include a twisted skein of heather, one of a very few known examples of Neolithic rope,[49] and a wooden handle.[50]
In 2016, a carved whalebone figurine dubbed 'Skara Brae Buddo' was rediscovered in a box atStromness Museum. Thought to be 5,000 years old, the artefact has four holes, in similar positioning to eyes, a mouth and a navel. The figurine was only known about because of a sketch recorded by antiquarianGeorge Petrie in the 19th century.[51]
Knap of Howar, on the Orkney island ofPapa Westray, is a well-preserved Neolithic farmstead. Dating from 3500 BC to 3100 BC, it is similar in design to Skara Brae, but from an earlier period, and it is thought to be the oldest preserved standing building in northern Europe.[52]
TheBarnhouse Settlement is byLoch of Harray on the Orkney Mainland, not far from theStanding Stones of Stenness.[53] Excavations were conducted between 1986 and 1991, over time revealing the base courses of at least 15 houses. The houses have similarities to those of the early phase of Skara Brae in that they have central hearths, beds built against the walls and stone dressers, and internal drains,[54] but differ in that the houses seem to have been free-standing. The settlement dates back to circa 3000 BC.[55]: 52
A comparable, though smaller, site exists atRinyo onRousay, Orkney. Unusually, noMaeshowe-type tombs have been found on Rousay and although there are a large number ofOrkney–Cromarty chambered cairns, these were built byUnstan ware people.
There is also a site currently under excavation atLinks of Noltland onWestray that appears to have similarities to Skara Brae.[56]
"TheHeart of Neolithic Orkney" was inscribed as a World Heritage site in December 1999. In addition to Skara Brae the site includesMaeshowe, theRing of Brodgar, theStanding Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites. It is managed byHistoric Environment Scotland, whose "Statement of Significance" for the site begins:
The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with themastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation.[57]
Some areas and facilities were closed due to the worldwideCOVID-19 pandemic during parts of 2020 and into 2021.[58]
In 2019, a risk assessment was performed to assess the site'svulnerability to climate change. The report byHistoric Environment Scotland, theOrkney Islands Council and others concludes that the entire Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, and in particular Skara Brae, is "extremely vulnerable" to climate change due to rising sea levels, increased rainfall and other factors; it also highlights the risk that Skara Brae could be partially destroyed by one unusually severe storm.[59]
ten stone structures, The village had a drainage system and even indoor toilets.
Amazing and mysterious Neolithic settlement on Scotland's Orkney Islands
According to Allan Burnett, historian and author of Invented In Scotland, the Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae in Orkney in fact boasted the world's first indoor toilet.
A Management Plan has been prepared by Historic Scotland in consultation with the Partners who share responsibility
Some areas/facilities will remain closed for now, we have a phased approach to re-opening while we work to make them safe
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