Skara Brae Northern Europe’s best-preserved Neolithic village Mainland Orkney Highland Region Scotland. SCO 5677
Following its initial discovery further excavations followed and, between 1928 and 1930, the dwellings we see today were released from their protective cocoons. At the time, the village was thought to be an Iron Age settlement - but this was no Pictish village. Radiocarbon dating in the early 1970s confirmed that the settlement dated from the late Neolithic - inhabited between 3200BC and 2200BC. Today, Skerrabra - or Skara Brae as it has become known - survives as eight dwellings, linked together by a series of low, covered passages. Because of the protection offered by the sand that covered the settlement for 4,000 years, the buildings and their contents are incredibly well-preserved. Not only are the walls of the structures still standing, and alleyways roofed with their original stone slabs, but the interior fittings of each house give an unparalleled glimpse of life as it was in Neolithic Orkney. Each house shares the same basic design - a large square room, with a central fireplace, a bed on either side and a shelved dresser on the wall opposite the doorway.
Size: 3732px × 5619px
Location: Skara Brae Mainland Orkney Highland Region Scotland KW16 3LR
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 1868, 1925, 3100-2500, abandoned., ancient, archaeology, bay, bc., brae, british, buildings, built, called, clustered, coast, complete, consists, damaged, embarked, europe, excavated, excavation, gained, heritage, houses, intrigued, laird, large, level, local, located, mainland, neolithic, number, occupied, orkney, outline, pompeii, preservation, preserve, previously-excavated, remained, remains, remains., revealed, roughly, scotland., sea-wall, settlement, site, site., skaill, skara, skerrabra, status, stone, stone-built, storm, structures., ten, undisturbed, unearthed, unesco, village, watt, west, william, work, world
