Orkney Riddler

  The Story of the Neolithic Migration to Orkney  The Neolithic people of Britain were a nomadic group of cultures that entered the country from the Dutch region of northern Europe from before 7000 years ago until after 6000 years ago. They came on foot, across a land bridge that is now shallow water between Holland and East Anglia, in England.  These people brought with them a suite of technologies ,  including pottery, domesticated animals, landscape structures, economic systems, community activities, timber joinery, structural engineering, and small-scale industries. They had boats , but these were limited to dugout canoes for use on inland waters, lakes, harbours, and perhaps for crossing rivers. These were people who had arrived in Northern Europe from the south, gathering in the Scheldt valley. As a group of various peoples we call these the Swifterbant Culture , and it was much later that the various groups included here, having established mobile populati...

  Conclusion The Theory here, begins with people in Early Neolithic times being able to walk from Caithness to Orkney until 3000BC., it continues by suggesting that a land bridge that joined Caithness to Orkney was washed away at that date.  The evidence that I hope I have demonstrated to support the theory is as follows:- The population of Orkney drops after 3000BC.  Barnhouse and many small settlements are abandoned in 3000BC.  The Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar are abandoned, unfinished, probably at that date.  The Westray islands are (mostly) 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 some kind of occupation, but not till after 3000BC are the revolutionary solid structures with stone lined drains and other necessary amenities designed and constructed.  The dates of the human bones found in the cairns...

Neolithic North-western Europe  From:- "New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small‑scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe" by Philippe Crombé, et al "The coastal lowlands of Northwest Europe are situated at the periphery of the extensive loess belt of Centraland West Europe, which was colonized in the course of the 6th millennium cal BC by migrating farmers from the Near East and Anatolia. The transition from (Mesolithic) hunter-gatherers to (Neolithic) farmers-herders in this coastal lowland area (Fig.1) has been debated by numerous scholars over the past decades. The debate centers around two opposing models. The frst advocates a long-term and gradual transition towards farming and herding starting early in the 5th millennium cal BC, a process in which local hunter-gatherers played asignifcant role (acculturation/cultural difusion model). The second model, on the other hand, considers a rapid introduction of domesticates near the end of the 5th...

  They Must Have Had Boats! The persistent belief is that Neolithic people had boats. Sheridan (below) and others, have confidently detailed where the maritime trade routes went between Europe and Britain. So, it must be right, mustn't it? There follows the academic understanding of the evidence for water transport around British shorelines  From:- "Ships and Boats:Prehistory to 1840 Introductions to Heritage Assets (Historic England)" "Early Prehistoric (500,000-4000 BC) Speculation about the development of water transport during the early prehistoric period is widespread, and some commentators have even suggested that the first boat, as opposed to a log ‘raft’, may have simply been a log hollowed out by disease. It is believed that Palaeolithic watercraft in north-west Europe were most likely limited to the use of log or hide floats and/or rafts in inland waters, particularly as there is no evidence for the waterborne movement of peoples between the British landma...

  The Swifterbant Culture     From:- "New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small‑scale husbandry inAtlantic NW Europe" by Philippe Crombé, et al "The Neolithization process of the Lower Scheldt basin.  The presence of domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry from ca. 4800–4600 cal BC onwards, implies that farmer/hunter-gatherer interaction along the NW border of the agro-pastoral frontier was much more intense and drastic than previously thought, and may have involved more than mere exchange of “exotic” goods. Indeed, local stock breeding demands a transmission of knowledge e.g. through training by skilled specialists which implies direct and prolonged involvement of farmers/herders from the loess areas. This is corroborated by the material culture, which also underwent drastic changes at precisely the same moment. Between 4800 and 4600 cal BC new knapping techniques appeared within the local “Mesolithic” lithic tra...

    The Excavation of Unstan Cairn by Robert Clouston Notice of the Excavation of a Chambered Cairn of the Stone Age, at Unstan, in the Loch of Stennis, Orkney. By Robert Stewart Clouston. (1884) (edited) The “ knowe of Unstan “ is situated in a piece of land jutting into the Loch of Stennis, a few hundred yards to the north-east of the Bridge of Waithe. To the north of the knowe, and within about 20 yards of it, the cape in which it stands is traversed by a moat from shore to shore. This moat, at a point nearly opposite the knowe, is crossed by a narrow passage of filled-in earth. Digging was begun in the east side of the knowe, as there appeared to be a slight sink in the formation of the cairn at this part. A few feet brought us to several large stones, some placed edgewise, others laid flat. These we found to be the roofing of the passage by which the interior is entered. At the inner end of the passage, and built partly over the last of the roofing stones, were two walls...