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Between the Wind and Water
 | Price: £18.99 Supplier: Windgather Press |
Orkney’s four great prehistoric monuments - Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and Skara Brae were designated a World Heritage Site in 1999, under the title ‘Heart of Neolithic Orkney’. In this book Caroline Wickham-Jones looks in detail at the site and then places it in the context of the wider Neolithic world. The later chapters give a brief overview of what came after, from the Bronze Age to the present day; at the antiquarians and archaeologist whom the sites have fascinated for centuries and just what it means to be a World Heritage Site.
This book is recommended to anyone with an interest in the subject. The author is an experienced archaeologist, living in Orkney, so has a deep knowledge of and interest in the subject and many other local experts have contributed their findings. The book is packed with information, presented in a clear accessible style and is very well illustrated.
Paperback, 192 pages (100 illustrations, 50 colour)
Published May 2006
ISBN 1905119062
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Skara Brae comprises of at least nine stone-built structures, most of which have been interpreted as houses. Each house leads off an inter-connecting, covered passageway which allowed the inhabitants to move between different parts of the settlement without going into the open. This may have been useful during the bleak Orcadian winter, though it is likely that the people of Skara Brae spent much of their time outside through the rest of the year.
Like most villages today, Skara Brae was inhabited over a considerable period, probably about 600 years. Houses were added and modified throughout that time, and some fell out of use. The earliest buildings were constructed about 3100 BC though, intriguingly, they made use of midden material from an earlier, as yet unidentified, settlement that is likely to have lain close by. Skara Brae flourished in the years between 2900 and 2600 BC, but by 2500 BC it had apparently been abandoned.
The earlier houses at Skara Brae were freestanding, while the later buildings were tightly interlocked around the passageways. In general the house pattern was very uniform, though there are some differences between the earlier and later buildings. Although the earlier buildings do not survive above two or three courses of stone, some of the later structures apparently stand to roof height. The houses were built of thick stone walls which incorporated midden material • rotted-down rubbish that takes on a thick sticky consistency. Not only did this help to stabilise the walls, it made an excellent insulation which would have been especially important during the cold Orcadian winters.
The average Skara Brae house comprised a single large room with rounded corners. At its heart was the hearth, bounded by low stone slabs and with plenty of room to move on all sides. At the centre of one wall was a single, low, entrance door with a bolt on the inside. Ahead of the door, through the smoke from the fire, the most striking feature of the room was a large stone dresser set against the opposite wall and comprising three shelves each divided into two bays. On either side of the hearth, slabs set on edge defined bed spaces which would have been filled with seaweed and furs, and there were usually small shelves set into the walls at the head of each bed. In the earlier houses the beds were set into recesses in the walls, in later houses they project into the room. Other features of the room included stone tanks set into the floor by the dresser, grinding stones, and possible rubbish areas. In addition, each house had at least one cell set into the thickness of the wall. Some of the cells have drains which lead away from them and these are likely to have functioned as lavatories.
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