Skara Brae

Skara Brae (also known as Skerrabra ) is a Neolithic settlement in Orkney. It is situated on the west coast of the main island of Mainland. It is in the time 3100-2500 BC dated and contained ceramic type Grooved Ware. With the incorporation of the British Isles in the Bell Beaker culture, the use of Skara Brae ends.

Importance

The discovered amongst dunes after a storm building were probably threatened even during the use of dunes. After they were no longer used, they were covered by sand until their accidental rediscovery in 1850, so they are very well preserved. In 1999 they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From archaeologists Skara Brae is considered the best preserved settlement of the Neolithic in Europe. The form of their eight houses is also known from the localities Rinyo and Barnhouse. The houses are built of stone, as wood ( the normal building materials of the Neolithic period ) in the Orkney was rare.

To Skara Brae cattle, sheep or goats and pigs were kept and cultivated barley and probably, as in the same time Rinyo on Rousay, also baked bread. The Ard (a simple plow ) was already known. In addition, the residents of wild living ( deer appear to have been brought from the mainland to the islands ), coastal fishing ( cod ), oysters, lobster, clams and sea birds or their eggs and the secondary products of livestock farming (cheese, milk). In Skara Brae, a workshop was found, were processed in the local stones such as Carved Stone Balls of which there are five copies were found. Finds of hematite, which originates from Hoy, shows that there was an exchange among the islands of the archipelago.

Trivia

In the computer role-playing game The Bard's Tale that forms in a hypothetical medieval offset Skara Brae the main setting.