Mainstream Stone Age

Sunday 10 August 2014

4:19 PM

Orkney Mainland, Scotland, UK

To say "I'm tired" would be an understatement. I'm staying in Kirkwall, but I had to bike to Stromness today so Ethel could get a tune-up. I suppose that wouldn't be too bad, but I didn't get to bed until 4 AM. Last night I started listening to Where She Went, and I couldn't stop. Now I'm on my way back to Kirkwall. I'm a figurative zombie, but I'm listening to it again as I ride because it's therapeutic in some very painful way.
I've just passed the village of Stenness and now I have to make a judgement call. Do I keep on, or stop and take some photos of the standing stones? I've been fairly good about not repeating things I've already done on this trip, but it really would be a shame if I stayed in Orkney for a whole month and never visited the stones.
So I turn off onto the B road, and make my way towards the monuments. There are people everywhere. Tour buses stop one after another, and people stream out like ants descending on an unsuspecting picnic.
Despite the masses, I'm happy I came here. The Stones of Stenness are what brought me to Orkney in the first place.

The Stones of Stenness now only has three stones which stand to their original hight, but originally it was comprised of 12 stones in a circular formation spaced 10 Megalithic Yards (MY) across. These very tall stones in such a tight circle would have felt very enclosed when the circle was complete.

Stenness is nice, but near by there is a Neolithic village called Barnhouse. I completely missed it last time I was here, and so I'm fairly eager to check out this peculiar village. All the buildings are worn down almost entirely to their foundations. It's strange because it just outlines where the walls and doors would have been. I'm reminded of when I was a little kid and I would draw the outlines of a house on the side walk.

Barnhouse Village, contemporary with late Skara Brae, is strange for two key reasons. The first is obvious, it's positioned extraordinarily close to the monuments mentioned in this post as well as Maes Howe. This tends to imply that the inhabitants of this village had a bit of status. Also these Grooved ware people don't seem to have a butchery like all the other Neolithic villages in the archipelago. No they weren't the world's first village of vegetarians, we know they ate meat. Was someone bringing this village it's meat? I'm willing to bet they weren't just stopping at Tesco.

The best bit about Barnhouse is that there weren't any tourists. The village isn't well known nor was it sign posted so people seem to miss it. But soon, I'm back into the throng of people hopping from monument to monument.
Next up is the big dig. I also missed the Ness of Brodgar excavation the last time I was here. Unfortunately, it's not exactly in a visit-ready state.

This Ness of Brodgar was not a village. They're calling it a ritual complex. With over 100 buildings that were originally surrounded by a stone wall unlike anything else from its time and a startling lack of domestic supplies, it's hard to come up with something better to call it. Only 10% has been excavated, and just that is completely revolutionizing what we thought we knew about the Neolithic.

If you're really interested in the Ness of Brodgar, I suggest you start with this video. It's really long so just be warned.

As with most in-progress digs, it's difficult to make heads or tales of what's going on unless you're working on the dig yourself. There is a person giving an explanation of the site, but they're just rapping up when I arrive. So I wander around, snap a few photos, and then head on to the Ring of Brodgar.

I'm not going to ramble on about the Ring of Brodgar because I already did that. So if you want some Neolithic Facts about the Ring of Brodgar check out this old blog post: A Peedie Adventure Part 2

It's a bit long winded as is the trend with my posts from last year, but it also details the village of Skara Brae so that's a plus.

Although you can't see them in this photo, it's crawling with tourists. This is as far as I make it before I decide to turn back. I'd go back to Brodgar later, but for now I just wanted to get back to the hostel and I had a long way to go.