Page 9 Macbeath

 


From:- The Orkneys in Early Celtic Times, Two Lectures, by James M. Macbeath, published by William Peace and Son, in 1892.


Page 9

"When our celtic ancestors came first to these islands, and for centuries thereafter , there is reason to believe that the lower lying grounds were thickly covered with wood , in which mountain ash, birch, pine , and Hazel largely predominated and other species have been found embedded in peat mosses with the bark still fresh and entire.

These would form a covert for the wild boar, red deer, reindeer, and other animals then native to the group, as well as fuel and shelter to the early settlers, who were little if at all removed from the condition of homeless roaming savages, living chiefly by their success in the chase and fishing; making rude and primitive garments and tools of the spoils of these, and having the roughest and rudest weapons made from wood, bone, and stone, with apparently very little, if any kind of knowledge of the working in metals,on which the simplest of all arts depends."


More about the migration of neolithic people to Orkney, in the Orkney Riddle 


#neolithic #prehistory #archaeology #Orkney #Scotland #Brodgar #skarabrae

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