{"id":2909,"date":"2010-09-28T10:10:28","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T14:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2018-08-05T21:59:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T01:59:32","slug":"2909","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=2909","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, September 28, 2010 \u2014 West Mainland, Orkney"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was eager to get to some of the key archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal sites, so I hoist\u00aded my pack and set out on foot. I soon got a lift with a cheer\u00adful Orca\u00addi\u00adan, and was dropped off at the base of the nar\u00adrow arm of land that sep\u00ada\u00adrates the Loch of Sten\u00adness from the Loch of Har\u00adray. This was the most active cen\u00adter of Neolith\u00adic Orkney. It was but a short walk to the Stones of Sten\u00adness. These date from around 3000 BC<\/span>. The phys\u00adi\u00adcal set\u00adting, between two lochs and at the cen\u00adtre of a vast bowl of land sur\u00adround\u00aded by high, bare hills, is mar\u00advelous. I was beneath a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly fine mix of sun and clouds, and there was nobody about to spoil the sense of mys\u00adtery and awe. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I was now in the New York of the north\u00adern Neolith\u00adic. There is an aston\u00adish\u00ading den\u00adsi\u00adty of con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adne\u00adous sites, here, most dat\u00ading from around 3,000 BC<\/span>. To the imme\u00addi\u00adate east of the Sten\u00adness Cir\u00adcle is the Barn\u00adhouse site. It was once thought that stone cir\u00adcles like Sten\u00adness were strict\u00adly reli\u00adgious or cer\u00ade\u00admo\u00adni\u00adal struc\u00adtures, pur\u00adpos\u00aded\u00adly kept at a dis\u00adtance from domes\u00adtic life. B ut Barn\u00adhouse proved to be an entire vil\u00adlage, con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary with the cir\u00adcle. Fur\u00adther to the east is Maes Howe. This extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary struc\u00adture, beneath a large con\u00adi\u00adcal mound, 35 m \/ 115 f high, is a mul\u00adti-cham\u00adbered tomb, con\u00adstruct\u00aded with great skill. The cen\u00adtral cor\u00adbelled cham\u00adber is 3.8 m \/ 12.5 f high and the qual\u00adi\u00adty of mason\u00adry work is superb. Close exam\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion reveals that it must have been the cul\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion of cen\u00adturies of exper\u00adi\u00adment and build\u00ading expe\u00adri\u00adence, quite apart from the large scale of com\u00admu\u00adnal labour it must have required. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Scat\u00adtered about the area to the south of the lochs are a num\u00adber of iso\u00adlat\u00aded stand\u00ading stones. The lochs are sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded from each oth\u00ader by a nar\u00adrow penin\u00adsu\u00adla which pro\u00adtrudes from the north\u00adwest and almost reach\u00ades the south\u00adern shore. The gap is crossed by a cause\u00adway. Loch Sten\u00adness receives salt water from the sea, and Loch Har\u00adray reamins fresh. Thus, each pro\u00advides a dif\u00adfer\u00adent selec\u00adtion of fish. If there were more exten\u00adsive marsh\u00ades in ancient times, the area would have pro\u00advid\u00aded a rich vari\u00adety of fish and fowl. I was remind\u00aded of the Cree\u2019s annu\u00adal har\u00advest of goose, in Cana\u00adda, which could be depend\u00aded upon when\u00adev\u00ader larg\u00ader game failed to mate\u00adri\u00adal\u00adize, and which brought togeth\u00ader fam\u00adi\u00adlies from a great dis\u00adtance. There were many birds audi\u00adble and vis\u00adi\u00adble to me as I crossed the cause\u00adway. A fam\u00adi\u00adly of swans glid\u00aded by, a few metres from me, with serene dig\u00adni\u00adty. A par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly fine stone stands at the south\u00adern foot of the cause\u00adway. At the oth\u00ader end, on the penin\u00adsu\u00adla, two stones pro\u00adtrude incon\u00adgru\u00adous\u00adly from a the lawn of a farmhouse. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

About a kilo\u00adme\u00adtre fur\u00adther on, the Ring of Bog\u00adnar occu\u00adpies a dra\u00admat\u00adic loca\u00adtion on a high part of the penin\u00adsu\u00adla. I would have to say that, sit\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded as it is, Bog\u00adnar is every bit as evoca\u00adtive of \u201csense of won\u00adder\u201d as Stone\u00adhenge is. The ring is huge <\/span>\u2015<\/span> 104 m \/ 341 f in diam\u00ade\u00adter. Twen\u00adty-sev\u00aden of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal six\u00adty stones remain stand\u00ading. The sur\u00adround\u00ading deep ditch is 380 m \/ 1,250 f in cir\u00adcum\u00adfer\u00adence. What\u00adev\u00ader cer\u00ade\u00admonies took place there (and what these may have been changes with every fash\u00adion of spec\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion) must have been grand affairs. Attempts to decypher these mon\u00adu\u00adments sym\u00adbol\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, with or with\u00adout their rela\u00adtion to the land\u00adsape, usu\u00adal\u00adly amount to noth\u00ading more than guess\u00ades. Is the land\u00adscape divid\u00aded into sym\u00adbol\u00adic \u201csec\u00adtors of the liv\u00ading\u201d and \u201csec\u00adtors of the dead\u201d ? Sounds neat, but no real evi\u00addence can be point\u00aded to. Astro\u00adnom\u00adi\u00adcal align\u00adments? One for Maes Howe is cer\u00adtaom. But align\u00adments can be cooked up for any ran\u00addom scat\u00adter of stones, let alone a cir\u00adcle that is com\u00adbined with iso\u00adlat\u00aded stones and an assort\u00adment dis\u00adtant land\u00adscape fea\u00adtures. Attempts to see into the minds of Neolith\u00adic peo\u00adple and inter\u00adpret their sym\u00adbol\u00adism, val\u00adues and behav\u00adiour tend to resem\u00adble the empath\u00adic insights of Dean\u00adna Troi in Star Trek TNG<\/span> (\u201cCap\u00adtain, I sense ambi\u00adgu\u00adi\u00adty and cau\u00adtion in these aliens\u201d). In oth\u00ader words, obvi\u00adous plat\u00adi\u00adtudes, or arbi\u00adtrary guesses. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Bog\u00adnar site moved me very deeply. The cir\u00adcle itself is mag\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcent, and its set\u00adting would have blown all the cir\u00adcuits of Byron or Char\u00adlotte Bront<\/span>\u00eb<\/span>. The sun alter\u00adnate\u00adly hid behind and broke out from rapid\u00adly mov\u00ading clouds, cre\u00adat\u00ading effects that might have been planned by Sven Nykvist or James Wong Howe. There were no bored tourists, chant\u00adi\u00adng hip\u00adpies, or crys\u00adtal gaz\u00aders to spoil the moment. The only sounds were those of birds and wind. Such times of seri\u00adous beau\u00adty don\u2019t often hap\u00adpen in the clut\u00adtered ruckus of life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As the day pro\u00adceed\u00aded, I was able to amble unhur\u00adried\u00adly among the archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant sites of West\u00adern Main\u00adland. Skara Brae is an amaz\u00ading place. I don\u2019t decry the ameni\u00adties that have been set up to han\u00addle the large num\u00adber of vis\u00adi\u00adtors who have been inspired to vis\u00adit it by books and tele\u00advi\u00adsion doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtaries. After all, I\u2019m one of that num\u00adber, and not a pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist. It\u2019s great to look with my own eyes at what I\u2019ve seen in the books. The hous\u00ades at Skara Brae show a peo\u00adple liv\u00ading on the remote fringe of Europe, far away from the sup\u00adpos\u00aded\u00adly sophis\u00adti\u00adcat\u00aded cen\u00adtres of the Ancient Near East, who could build skill\u00adful\u00adly and lived in more com\u00adfort than many an eigh\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry cot\u00adter did. Periph\u00adery trumps Cen\u00adtre. But who these peo\u00adple were, what lan\u00adguage they spoke, what they believed, and how much of the rest of the world they knew of, we don\u2019t know. I\u2019m inclined to believe that their world was con\u00adcep\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly large, that they par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpat\u00aded in a broad net\u00adwork of trav\u00adel and trade, and were not strangers to trav\u00adel along the Atlantic seaboard, the North Sea, and the Baltic. The sheer mass num\u00adber of struc\u00adtures they erect\u00aded in the region is impres\u00adsive, but it is the qual\u00adi\u00adty of the engi\u00adneer\u00ading that impress\u00ades most. These objects were not erect\u00aded by sav\u00adages or brutes. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As both the sun\u00adlight and my strength fad\u00aded <\/span>\u2015<\/span> I was car\u00adry\u00ading a well-loaded pack <\/span>\u2015<\/span> I stopped ram\u00adbling. Sleep, was a neces\u00adsi\u00adty. Above the farmed fields, the hill\u00adtops of Main\u00adland are waste\u00adlands of gorse and heather. Fear\u00ading light\u00adning, I did not perch atop one, but found an inter\u00adme\u00addi\u00adate loca\u00adtion to pitch a tent, and fell asleep to the low\u00ading of cat\u00adtle, the bleat\u00ading of sheep, and irreg\u00adu\u00adlar blus\u00adter of the wind.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

* The largest island is called \u201cMain\u00adland\u201d, a term which Orca\u00addi\u00adans nev\u00ader use for the main\u00adland of Britain. They gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly refer to the land mass to the south of them as \u201cScot\u00adland\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was eager to get to some of the key archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal sites, so I hoist\u00aded my pack and set out on foot. I soon got a lift with a cheer\u00adful Orca\u00addi\u00adan, and was dropped off at the base of the narrow \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-aq-blog-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7772,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions\/7772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}