Skara Brae: Older Than Stonehenge or The Egyptian pyramids

Skara Brae is near the Bay of Skaill, Orkney, Scotland.

In 1850, a storm blew away a sand dune on a windswept bluff in the North Atlantic and revealed an intact Neolithic village, where farmers and cattle herders once lived.

The village of Skara-Brae is 5,000 years old (3200 BCE) – centuries older than the Pyramids of Egypt.

The ten houses grouped together were inhabited, approximately, between 3100 and 2500 BC. C.

Some of the earliest known and well-preserved furniture in Europe comes from the Neolithic village at Skara Brae

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney

Stone beds, chairs and dressers that were used by the prehistoric fishermen, hunters and farmers, can be found here.

Hearths in the homes show us that the houses were warmed by fire. The houses also had a stone slab door which could be locked “by a bar made of bone that slid in bar-holes cut in the stone door jambs.” (Professor V. Gordon Childe, 1927)

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney

The people who lived at Skara Brae made tools, jewellry, gaming dice, grooved ware (a unique type of pottery), and other ornaments from bone, stones, and precious rocks.

There existed a basic sewer system, with "toilets" and drains in each house, with water to flush waste into a drain and out into the ocean.

Carved stone balls (petrospheres) found at Skara Brae on Orkney, date from 2900 - 2600 BCE.

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney

The chairs at Skara Brae are among the earliest known, with chairs from the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt dating to 3100 BC.

The Skara Brae site includes Maeshowe, the Standing Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites. 

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney

The nearby Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic stone circle that dates back to the same period as Skara Brae, Orkney

The nearby Ring of Brodgar, a Neolithic stone circle that dates back to the same period as Skara Brae, Orkney

More Information

Skara Brae: Uncovering the Secrets of Scotland's Ancient History

Getting to Skara Brae 

Orkneyology

The Earliest Horse Chariots

Horses began appearing in cave art around 30,000 BCE.

However, the earliest evidence for spoked wheel chariots comes from the Sintashta-Petrovka culture of the Eurasian steppe (Russia) c. 2100 BCE.

The Sintashta culture is thought to represent an eastward migration of peoples from the Corded Ware culture.

The remains of a fortified settlement dating to the Bronze Age, c. 2800–1600 BC, has been partially destroyed, with thirty-one of the approximately fifty or sixty houses in the settlement, remaining.

With rectangular houses arranged in a circle 140 m in diameter and surrounded by a timber-reinforced earthen wall with gate towers, the settlement shows evidence of copper and bronze metallurgy taking place in the houses excavated at Sintashta.

In Southern Urals, in Russia, the Bronze Age city of Arkaim, a settlement of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture.

The Sintashita culture also had communal sewage/drainage systems, and distinctive weapons.

Five cemeteries found associated with the site, have various chariot burials, with the remains of horses interred with the chariots in graves. 

These are the oldest known chariots in the world.

Recreated chariot from the Museum of Archaeological Wonders

Of the sixteen chariot burials recovered so far, two have been dated to around 2000 BC.

Horses were domesticated by 3000 BCE. However, dogs were domesticated 15,000 years ago.

The remains of a fortified settlement dating to the Bronze Age, c. 2800–1600 BC, of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture.

Timeline of the Chariot

Arkaim: 2050 BC
Minoan Crete: 2000 BC
Ancient Egypt: 1600 BC

Viking Treasure Found in a Field Near Harrogate

A father and son, David and Andrew Whelan were metal detecting in a field near Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK, in 2007. when David found a "ball covered with mud".

Called the "Harrogate Hoard", this archaeological find is of global significance, and the largest Viking treasure discovered in Britain since 1840.

Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum, examined the artifacts. The hoard consists of 617 silver coins and 65 other items, including ornaments, ingots and precious metal.

Interestingly, reports indicate that the coins bear Islamic, Christian, and pre-Christian Norse pagan symbols: "some of the coins mixed Christian and pagan imagery, shedding light on the beliefs of newly-Christianized Vikings".

The hoard includes objects from diverse locations, including Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, North Africa, Afghanistan, Russia, Ireland, Scandinavia, and continental Europe, "illustrating the breadth of the Vikings' travels and trade connections".

The gilt silver vessel, in which many small objects were placed, was made around today's France or western Germany, about the middle of the ninth century, probably for use in church services.

The treasure was probably buried after 927, the year that the Anglo-Saxon, King Athelstan of Wessex, defeated the Vikings, conquered York, and received the homage of rulers from Scotland and Wales.

The Harrogate Hoard in the York Museum, UK

The Harrogate Hoard in the York Museum, UK

York Museum, UK