View W of the Benie Hoose Late Neolithic house at Pettigarths Field settlement, Whalsay, Shetland, Scotland, UK, showing the horned courtyard at front
View W of the Benie Hoose Late Neolithic house at Pettigarths Field settlement, Whalsay, Shetland, Scotland, UK, showing the horned courtyard in front of the house. A paved entrance passage leads from the courtyard into a single large chamber with two rectangular recesses within the up to 4m thick walls of the house. The house is shaped roughly like a jelly baby or figure-of-eight with curving horns enclosing the courtyard. A level platform was cut back into the hillside & the house faces E downhill to the sea, probably for morning sunshine, views & drainage. Animals were probably penned in the unroofed courtyard. The house was stripped of peat & excavated 1954-5 by Calder: pottery & 1,800 large stone tools including, hammerstones, pounders, discs & 33 querns were recovered. There was a second phase of occupation in the Iron Age.
Size: 3780px × 2657px
Location: Benie Hoose, Pettigarths Field, Whalsay, Shetland, Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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