Neolithic Period (4000-2500 BC)
A number of substantial Neolithic structures termed ‘timber halls’ have been found in the eastern and southern lowlands.
At Balbridie, Aberdeenshire, on the south bank of the River Dee, east of Banchory, the ‘hall’ measured 85 ft (26 m) x 42 ft (13 m) and was divided into three sections. Excavation revealed that farming had reached this region by 3900-3700 BC. More than 20,000 cereal grains were recovered, the main varieties being emmer wheat and naked barley.
Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian, west of Edinburgh, was used and re-used as a major ritual site for more than four thousand years. Neolithic rituals began about 3500 BC with small hearths and precious objects, including pottery bowls and stone axe heads.
Unstan pottery dated 3200-2800 BC discovered at Eilean Dòmhnuill, Loch Olabhat, near Griminish on North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides, suggests that it may have been Scotland’s earliest crannog, a dwelling constructed partially or entirely on an artificial island. A clear sequence of hearths, pottery and lithics implies impermanent occupation
Skara Brae is a stone-built settlement on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney. Comprising eight clustered houses, it was occupied from c.3180 to c.2500 BC. The settlement was sunk into shell-middens that provided a layer of insulation against the island’s harsh winter climate. The dwellings included a central hearth and stone-built furniture, including cupboards, dressers, seats and box beds. The inhabitants were makers and users of grooved ware and their diet included the meat of domesticated animals (sheep and cattle), cereals (barley and wheat) grown in the surrounding fields, fish (cod and saithe), shellfish as well as the occasional beached whale.
In the Achnabreck Forest, Argyllshire, the rock art includes some of the largest ring marks in Britain and are thought to be about 5000 years old.
The site at Forteviot, Perthshire, south of the River Earn and southwest of Perth, began as a cremation cemetery at the start of the third millennium BC and was later enclosed by timber circle and an inner earthen henge on the western side of an 885 feet (270 m) diameter palisaded enclosure.
At the Scord of Brouster (2200 BC), a Neolithic site on the west side of Mainland, Shetland, excavation has revealed three circular to oval houses having thick stone walls, sections and hearths. Clearing the woodland for agriculture began about 2730 BC. Surrounding the houses are six adjoining irregularly shaped fields for barley cultivation and distributed among them is a large number of clearance cairns built of the stones removed from the land to facilitate the farming.
● Neolithic Monuments
The Callanish Stones, located near the village of Callanish on the west coast of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, are an arrangement of standing stones placed in a cruciform pattern with a central stone circle. To the side within the circle there is a circular mound containing a small chambered tomb. Rows of stones radiate out to the east, south and west. Northwards runs a double row or avenue. They were erected 2900 to 2600 BC, but the site itself was cultivated earlier around 3000 BC.
Around 3000 BC, construction continued at Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian, with a henge that had wide entrances on the north and south. Inside was an egg-shaped setting of twenty-four uprights (timber posts or possibly standing stones) enclosing an inner setting of similar uprights.
About five miles (8 km) southeast of Skara Brae at the centre of Mainland, Orkney, is the Ring of Brodgar, a 341 ft (104 m) diameter stone circle, on the long narrow Brodgar peninsula with Loch Stenness and Loch Harray along its southwest and northeast coasts respectively. This monument, thought to have been erected between 2500 and 2000 BC, is surrounded by a 403 feet (123 m) diameter rock-cut ditch, but an external earthbank to form a henge probably never existed.
At the end of the peninsula on a finger of land is the Ness of Brodgar, a huge Neolithic complex covering 6.2 acres (2.5 ha), dated to 3300 BC and comprising huge stone buildings up to 75 feet (23 m) in length with walls 14 feet (4 m) thick. The site was closed down and partly dismantled by 2200 BC.
Today, a short bridge connects this site to the eastern sides of the two lochs where on a small headland are located the Stones of Stenness (3100 BC), a 102 feet (31 m) diameter stone circle, enclosed within a 200 feet (61 m) henge (a ring-shaped ditch with an earthbank outside).
Less than a mile east of Stenness is the chambered cairn and passage tomb of Maeshowe, probably built 2800 BC and today covered by a grassy mound 115 feet (35 m) in diameter and rising to a height of 24 feet (7.3 m). Surrounding the mound, at a distance of 50 feet (15 m) to 70 feet (21 m) is a ditch up to 45 feet (14 m) wide. Its entrance corridor is so placed that it lets the direct light of the setting sun into the chamber for a few days each side of the winter solstice, illuminating the passage and the chamber.
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