Orkney Riddler

Series Title:- Orkney Riddle 21/27 Blog Title:- The Ness of Brodgar Excavation   Trench P, which includes Structure 10 While, in recent times, the stone circles of Stenness and Brodgar were a present reminder of times past for Orkney folk, Barnhouse was unknown, and completely hidden from view. So also was the Ness of Brodgar, which is now one of the most exciting archaeology projects to explore Neolithic Britain, in recent years. It is directed by Nick Card, and is best described by him, as follows. “ The Ness of Brodgar (Fig. 49) sits on the south eastern tip of the Brodgar isthmus separating the Loch of Harray to the east, and the Loch of Stenness to the west, at the centre of the large natural bowl of hills of the West Mainland of Orkney. From it the Ring of Brodgar (0.75 km to the NW), the Stones of Stenness (0.5 km to the SE) and Maeshowe (1.5 km to the E) are clearly visible. On the south side of the Bridge of Brodgar, barely 300 m distant, is the Neolithic settlement of B...

  Series Title:- Orkney Riddle 12/27 Blog Title:- Modern Sweat Lodge Practices At Barnhouse,  Structure 8 has good evidence that it was built to function as a sweat Lodge. There may be as many as three other sweat lodges on the Orkney Archipelago.  Sweat Lodges in present cultures may help us to understand better the culture of Neolithic people in Orkney.  “ Sweat lodges are heated dome-shaped structures used by Indigenous peoples during certain purification rites and as a way to promote healthy living. The intense heat generated — often by steam created from pouring water onto heated rocks — is meant to encourage a sweating out of toxins and negative energy that create disorder and imbalance in life. In this way, the sweat lodge ceremony cleanses the body, mind and soul. Each sweat lodge is slightly different, depending on the community or person who operates it, and the purpose for which it is used. For example, some sweat lodge ceremonies are restricted to men, wo...

Series Title:- Orkney Riddle 11/27 Blog Title:- The Barnhouse Sweat Lodge Structure 8 Some time after the initial establishment of the Barnhouse Settlement, this building was added, Structure 8. The inner part of Structure 8, the near-square building, is surrounded by a clay platform within the circular surrounding wall.   Stone hearths, boxes, pits, and spreads of ash suggest that the outer clay platform around the outside of the square building was used for a range of activities, that might have included cooking and food preparation Barnhouse, Structure 8, plan   Barnhouse, Structure 8, entrance The above photograph shows the entrance into Structure 8 with a fire hearth in the foreground, and what may or may not be a second hearth in the middle of the room beyond.  The stonework has been designed to survive Orkney weather, but it does not accurately depict the design of the building that Neolithic people built.  The above image shows a plan of the entrance to ...

  Series Title:- The Orkney Riddle 8/27 Blog Title:- Archaeology in the North Sea   The Orkney Vole is thought to have been imported, by uncertain means, to the archipelago from mainland Europe without setting foot on mainland Britain.  How this happened is a bit of a mystery.     At present, the scope for a small rodent to migrate between Denmark, Germany,  the Netherlands,  or France,  and Orkney,  without touching Britain seems a bit limited. " Orkney voles have evolved their own particular dental phenotype, likely the result of human agency influencing its evolutionary trajectory in different ways over the last 5000 years. This human influence began with its Neolithic introduction to the Orkney Mainland at a time when there were no terrestrial predators and only one competing species (the wood mouse). The Orkney vole population rapidly diverged from continental European M. arvalis to reach a new ecological optimum, that included evol...

Series Title:- The Orkney Riddle 6/27 Blog Title:- Walkable Land in the North Sea There is an area of shallow sea that links Holland with East Anglia. It is likely that this passage would have provided walkable land between England and Holland until a time when Neolithic people were exploring Northern Europe.  The bathymetry chart above indicates this broad area of shallow water joining Lincolnshire, and Norfolk, in England to Holland. Elsewhere, to the south of this region deep water gullies would have prevented any migration by animals, people, or plants. The Norfolk Banks (above) are a series of ridges on the floor of the North Sea, beside the Norfolk coast. Detailed chart, above shows bathymetry of ridges and troughs of the Norfolk   The location of this section of the Norfolk Banks, above, is indicated on the plan above it. The main features of the Norfolk Banks that can be seen in the plan and section are as follows  1- the high ridges of these banks are parallel ...

Series Title:- Orkney Riddle 14/27  Blog Title:- The Ring of Brodgar  " The monument (Ring of Brodgar) comprises a massive ceremonial enclosure, or ‘henge’; its rock-cut ditch (c.123m diameter) encircling a platform with an impressive stone circle set around its circumference. It is thought to date to between 2600 and 2000 BC and is carefully and prominently sited on an isthmus between two lochs on Mainland Orkney.The stone circle has a diameter of c.103m with 21 stones currently standing erect, but it is thought to have originally incorporated 60 monoliths. The individual stones have a mixed history: some are lost, several are represented only by stumps or packing stones, while others still lie where they fell or were pushed; a number of stones were re-erected by the Ministry of Works at the start of the 20th century, while the remainder have stood through the test of time. One stone carries a Norse runic inscription, and at least one other has been struck by lightning. In th...