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an admonisher from the past

Till a couple days ago I didn’t know anything about Skara Brae. This is not a problem by itself, the problem is my stereotype image of a stone age person as an ugly creature coming out of a cave. True, the nice cave paintings in Spain stir some confusion, but that’s art, they had no toilets nor banks, nuclear bomb neither. You just don’t ask yourself how they got those color paints (the source metal oxides are not anywhere near).

Skara Brae is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement in Scotland. It consists of nine clustered houses, still holding many of their original contents, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BC–2500 BC. It is Europe's most complete Neolithic village and because of its age (older than Stonehenge) and the high level of preservation, it has gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Skara Brae offers an astonishing insight into the sophistication of household life in the Stone Age.

The houses had locking doors, a system of drain- age and elemental plumbing with slots in the walls. The interiors were copious thanks to the ten feet high walls and 430 sq ft layout. The floors were paved, and each house has built-in stone beds, dressers, storage alcoves and water tanks. The boxes were formed from thin slabs with joints carefully sealed with clay to render them water- proof. Covered passageways ran between the houses and led to a paved common area. The residents had jewelry and pottery. They grew wheat and barley, and enjoyed shellfish and fish. They kept cattle, sheep, pigs, and dogs. They lacked wood, but they managed with seaweed and some driftwood. A number of carved stones with spiral ornamentation have been found at the site. Other artefacts excavated on site made of animal, fish, bird, and whalebone, whale and walrus ivory, and killer whale teeth included awls, needles, knives, beads, adzes, shovels, small bowls and, most remarkably, ivory pins up to 10 inches. Also a twisted skein of heather, one of a very few known examples of Neolithic rope, and a wooden handle. Nodules of haematite with highly polished surfaces were probably used to finish leather.

Skara Brae

We don’t know anything at all about these people - where they came from and why they quite suddenly vanished. But at the remains of Skara Brae we see that they enjoyed over six hundred years of sophisticated domesticity.

 2010-11-14 

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