Lmst

My blog is a bit long, so probably off-putting.
It attempts to "prove" that people were walking from Scotland to Orkney in the early part of the #Neolithic period.
In extensive and detailed research I have found a series of observations derived from other peoples work that, put together, may be enough to prove that there was walkable land from Doggerland north to the Shetlands, and also from #Orkney to Caithness.

In brief , there is evidence of a passage of land leading from #Dogger Bank to a location in the north of the North Sea where a flint artefact was found half way between Shetland and Norway.
There is also evidence that that land collapsed towards the Norwegian Coast in 3000BC.

On Orkney, Barnhouse and many other small settlements across mainland Orkney are all shallow sites that are clearly not designed to be occupied in an Orkney winter. These settlements were all abandoned before 3000BC.

My only assumption is that when land in the North of the North Sea was lost so also was a bridge between South Ronaldsay on Orkney, and Caithness, north Scotland.

The Stones of #Stenness and Ring of #Brodgar were abandoned, unfinished, probably at 3000BC.
The Westray islands are abandoned at 3000BC, and not colonised again until the second half of the 3rd millennium BC.
#Skara #Brae, and the #Ness of #Brodgar, both have dated deposits from before 3000BC indicating there was some kind of occupation until then, but not till after 3000BC are the revolutionary solid structures with stone lined drains and other necessary amenities for winter weather designed and constructed.
The structures at the Ness of Brodgar were made of wood, largely, so they would not have lasted long, a couple of generations perhaps.
The dates of the human bones found in the cairns are largely assessed to before 3000BC, and the dates of the animal bones, also in the cairns, which were arguably being eaten by people, are largely after 3000BC.
This suggests that when a few groups of people isolated from mainland Britain lost the structural secuity of their solidly built structures, they may have sought desperate refuge in the cairns.
Temporary visitors returned, by newly developed boats, in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC.

Detailed, if longwinded, analysis is in the blog:-

http://orkneyriddler.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-orkney-riddle.html

#archaeology #Orkney #prehistory #Neolithic

Skara Brae
Historic Environment Scotland, Statement Of Significance, Skara Brae
“The excavated remains of Skara Brae, as currently presented, consist of a tightly clustered grouping of stone-built structures connected by narrow passageways. The structures, many of which are interpreted as houses, have internal fittings of stone. There were two main phases of building and occupation in the development of the settlement, with a gap relating to the probable abandonment of the settlement due to inundation by sand.
Individual buildings were, at first, freestanding, with open passageways between them. Some of the passageways were subsequently roofed over, creating the passages visible today.
Skara Brae was occupied at various times – not continuously – from the late fourth Millennium to the mid-third millennium BC (with sporadic activity after that). Recent Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates has indicated that while occupation on the site started at some time between 3360 and 3160 cal BC (with the inhabitants using pottery that was probably round-based: Phase 0), the earliest houses that survive today (Phase 1) were constructed in the early third millennium BC (from 2920–2885 Cal BC).
After less than a century of occupation – possibly as short a period as 50 years, that means two generations – the settlement seems to have been abandoned (probably as a result of inundation by sand), around 2870–2760 cal BC. It was then reoccupied, with new houses being built and some old houses being remodelled (early House 7, for example), within the time frame of 2840–2685 cal BC and remained in use until 2545–2440 cal BC. After its abandonment, there are hints of ‘squatting’-like activity at various times including the Iron Age (as demonstrated by, amongst other things, a horse tooth bead radiocarbon dated to 170 cal BC–cal AD 10, SUERC-40339, 2060±30 BP).
Activity after the settlement’s abandonment also included the deposition of human remains at various times, with some of the disarticulated bones found during the nineteenth century having recently been radiocarbon dated (for Whittle and Bayliss’ The Times of Their Lives project and for Rick Schulting) to the late third to early second millennium BC – the time when beaker pottery was in use in Orkney."
Whatever happened through the 3rd millennium BC, the data, as expressed here shows a surprisingly clear separation between the occupation of Skara Brae before 3000BC, and the development after, again suggesting that something happened at that date affecting how the inhabitants of Orkney could live.
#neolithic #archaeology #prehistory #skarabrae #Skara #Brae #C14 #Orkney