Skara Brae, Scotland
Europe's best preserved Neolithic, or Stone Age, village, Skara Brae, is located on the west coast of Scotland's Orkney island, along the Bay of Skaill. Inhabited from between 3100 to 2500 BC, it consists of a group of 10 communal houses connected by stone lined passageways, some of which include intricate carvings.
Each of the houses was laid out according to the same plan. They measure around 40 square meters, focused on a large square room with a large central hearth that would have been used for heating and cooking. These hearths most likely burned seaweed, dung, and possibly peat.
The dwellings contain several pieces of stone "furniture", including cupboards, dressers, beds, benches, and storage boxes. An advanced (for the time) drainage system that included a primitive form of toilet served each unit. There was also a stone tank near the hearth which archaeologists believe was used either for storing live bait or keeping a fish catch fresh.
Seven of the houses have similar furniture arranged according to the same plan. The dresser, which stands along the wall opposite the door, would have been the first thing anyone entering the home saw. Apparently this is where residents kept their prized possessions, including intricately carved stone balls and even bone jewelry. The eighth unit appears to have been a workshop.
Trees are scarce on the island, so the people of Skara Brae probably used driftwood and whalebone, lined with thatch, to roof their structures. The homes were also built down into the earth, or rather, into mounds, called middens, comprised of discarded shells and other domestic refuse.
The inhabitants of Skara Brae were farmers, growing barley and wheat, who also tended herds of cattle or sheep. Fish and shellfish were a large part of their diet, as was seal meat and the occasional feast of whale. They also hunted red deer, wild boar, plus wild fowl, whose eggs they also collected.
Sometime around 2500 BC, the climate of the region grew colder and wetter. This may have been a factor in the gradual demise of the village.
Henge, or stone circle, monuments at Maeshowe, Stenness, and Brodgar signal the emergence of an elite ruling class who had power and likely controlled large groups of local workers. With this development, the need for enclosed village communities vanished. Families no longer depended on their small, tight-knit villages. Now they were part of a larger community, controlled by tribal heads and/or spiritual leaders.
Over time, these families dispersed across the region, settling in single, individual dwellings. More and more of the younger generations drifted away from the village, leaving only the elders behind. Finally, those who remained within Skara Brae's ancient walls grew older and died, leaving the village abandoned to time.
The ruins of Skara Brae were not rediscovered until a wild storm in 1850. The combination of Orkney's notorious winds and extremely high tides stripped grass from a large mound known then as Skerrabra, exposing stone walls which revealed the outline of a number of buildings.
The local laird, William Watt of Skaill, was curious and embarked on an excavation of the site. By 1868, after the remains of four ancient houses had been unearthed, work at Skerrabra was abandoned. Not until 1925, when another storm damaged some of the previously-excavated structures, did further exploration occur. During the construction of a sea-wall designed to preserve these remains, more ancient structures were discovered, and excavations continued until the 1930s, when the village as we know it today was complete.
There is now a Visitors Center and marked paths, along with descriptive plates and maps which help the visitor understand what he is seeing.