Finally.






 Finally, what really happened in prehistoric Britain?




This is a question that will have to be answered by proper archaeologists. What is clear though is, in the specific culture of Neolithic Orkney, the people who inhabited the area and built the monuments were nomadic, and travelled to Orkney from Scotland, England, and perhaps France on an annual basis, moving from a winter base to a summer base .


The people who built the henges were not farmers or agriculturalists. They were opportunists and would eat almost anything that didn't try to eat them. In modern terms they were shepherds, but it is very unlikely that they fenced any livestock. They had dogs to take care of the sheep they adopted.


Considering that the people were temporary occupants of Orkney it is unlikely that cairns were intended for housing dead people, and we would probably be better advised to dream up a purpose for these monuments that might have been of use to visitors who were only here for perhaps four months in any year.


Although the evidence suggests that the people were effectively survivalists their culture was clearly of huge significance. The existence of sweat lodges in their communities speaks of strong social structures the evidence of which is elsewhere largely lost.


Moreover the inginuity that the people developed at Ness of Brodgar, stranded as they were, to build complex structures, huge structures, is something to help us to see them in a very different light.


Sources

All views and opinions expressed are my own, but it remains a work-in-progress for which positive criticism and comment is welcomed.


Jeffery Nicholls 

South Ronaldsay 

Orkney 

Jiffynorm@yahoo.co.uk 


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