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