#prehistory

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Bob the Traveler

Joseph L Goldstein, born OTD in 1940, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985 for work in cholesterol metabolism; sterols in ancient poop reveal #history and #prehistory toilet-guru.com/blog/39.html?s

Apr 21, 2025, 19:04 · · 1 · 0
Bob the Traveler

Joseph L Goldstein, born OTD in 1940, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985 for work in cholesterol metabolism; sterols in ancient poop reveal #history and #prehistory toilet-guru.com/blog/19.html?s

Apr 21, 2025, 18:04 · · 1 · 0
Bob the Traveler

Joseph L Goldstein, born OTD in 1940, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1985 for work in cholesterol metabolism; sterols in ancient poop reveal #history and #prehistory toilet-guru.com/blog/9.html?s=

Apr 21, 2025, 17:04 · · 0 · 0
Orkney Riddler

I have only visited Maeshowe once , 45 years ago. It's a bit awkward now, there is a visitor centre just down the way at Stenness village, and people are taken by minibus from there to control a hazardous crossing point near the monument .
The monuments greatest claim to fame seems to be the observation that the long entrance passage has been designed such that it is aligned with the setting sun on the day of the Winter Solstice. As the sun sets, its rays are said to radiate down the passage Illuminating the back wall of the great chamber. There remains great speculation regarding this belief, and much scholarly dispute is devoted to the discussion of sunsets and horizons here and elsewhere, on the Orkney landscape. Although it is true that the sun does light up the rear of the chamber at the solstice, some sources question whether this was purposeful or accidental.
The Royal Commission suggests that :“The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance.”, but as the butting face for the blocking stone is facing inwards, in my opinion it seems unlikely that an effective closure could be made from the outside. Strange though it may seem, it looks more likely that this closure would be better performed by people enclosed within the cairn.

#maeshowe #Neolithic #archaeology #prehistory #Orkney

Apr 21, 2025, 14:39 · · · 2 · 0
Orkney Riddler

The other major monument in the Brodgar region of Orkney is the Maeshowe Chambered Cairn.
“More than any other prehistoric monument, the design and execution of Maeshowe epitomises the skill of Neolithic masons in Orkney, and the tomb is rightly considered to be one of the supreme achievements of prehistoric Europe. It is inevitable that such a huge mound should have been robbed long ago, and when it was opened in 1861 by James Farrer it was indeed empty of its original contents, apart from a fragment of human skull.
Its location, close to the great ceremonial complex of the Brodgar-Stenness circles, is presumably no accident.
The mound was built on a levelled circular platform, encircled by a low bank composed of earth scraped up from a shallow ditch on its inner side; the mound itself, 25m in diameter and 7m high, consists largely of clay and stones, but there is an inner core of stones casing and supporting the chamber. The outermost part of the entrance passage has been restored, but from the door checks inwards it is original. The great boulder in its triangular niche just inside the doorway on the left would have been drawn forwards with ropes to close the entrance. In keeping with the proportions of the tomb, the passage is quite spacious, although at a height of 1.4m it is not possible to walk upright.
The main chamber is about 4.5m square and was originally about the same height, with three side cells entered above ground-level; in each corner there is a buttress designed to help in supporting the weight of the corbelled roof. The masonry is superb, the slabs finely adjusted by underpinning or dressing to create a smooth face even where they are in fact oversailing one another towards the roof, and the tapering orthostats facing one side of each buttress not only create an impression of soaring vertical space but attractively interrupt the horizontal lines of the walls.
When Farrer dug into Maeshowe, he found that the chamber had already been broken into, as he did, from the top; from Orkneyinga Saga and from the runic inscriptions on the walls of the chamber, it is clear that it was entered on more than one occasion by Norsemen in the 12th century, to whom the mound was known as Orkhaugr. During the struggle between the rival earls Erlend and Harald for control of the earldom, Harald and some of his men sought shelter in Maeshowe from a snowstorm, but it was such a terrible experience that two of them went mad, ‘ which slowed them down badly’ says the saga, though they still reached their destination by nightfall. The following winter of 1153-4, crusaders gathered together ready for a trip to the Holy Land broke into the chamber and incised some of the runic inscriptions, and there were probably other occasions as well when runes were cut there. This is one of the largest extant collection of runic inscriptions carved in stone. There are about thirty inscriptions, including both ordinary runes and cryptographic twig runes, and there are also some beautifully executed carvings of a walrus, a serpent knot and a dragon or lion on the north-east buttress, all in typically vigorous Scandinavian style.”  (RCAHMS Canmore)

#maeshowe #Neolithic #archaeology #prehistory #Orkney

Apr 21, 2025, 13:09 · · · 1 · 0
Orkney Riddler

At Barnhouse, the largest structure on the site, Structure 8, has the hallmarks of being a communal structure, and contained evidence that it was in fact a sweat Lodge.
The clearest identification for this can be found in the entrance passage, in which can be found a fire hearth external to the building. The excavation plan indicates clearly that not only was there an external hearth, but that there was a lobby from which that fire could be supplied and serviced, and that there were two entrances into that lobby, from either side of the hearth.
Further evidence for the use of the structure as a sweat Lodge is found in the group of stones found in a pit very close to the entrance through from the entrance lobby. These I suggest were the heated rocks in the pit where they were placed to be sprinkled with water to raise the steam for the sweat Lodge ceremony.
A complete Grooved Ware pot set into the ground against the North East interior wall of the structure contained the water for the stones, and a small pottery vessel, found in the drain that runs out of the room would have been used to carry the water from the Grooved ware pot to the heated rocks.
The structure is pyramid shaped.  Long timbers rest on an outer row of stones, and are supported on a king post in the centre of room within. Participants in the sweat lodge ceremony sat on a low wall around the room, and two operatives sat with their backs against the central king post. One of these people tended the external fire and supplied the hot stones into the pit where they were wetted, and the other used the pinch pot to label water from the Grooved Ware vessel to the Stones.
A wall surrounding structure 8 protected participants before and after the ceremony proper, but also protected the fire from the ever-present wind
Barnhouse was abandoned at around 3000BC,  and all the structures there remained unmolested, to fall into disuse.
#Barnhouse #Neolithic #archaeology #sweatlodge #prehistory #Orkney

Apr 20, 2025, 17:13 · · 1 · 0
Orkney Riddler

Barnhouse, the "Neolithic Village", in Orkney, is close to the Stones of Stenness, and the Maeshowe Cairn, and it sits on the shore of Harray Loch.
None of these Barnhouse buildings has the obvious sense of permanence that dwellings at Skara Brae, or the Knap of Howar have. They are short lived structures, often repaired, and rebuilt, and they date from different times throughout the duration of the settlement.
It seems unlikely that the walls of these structures at Barnhouse were ever much more than a few courses high, and a reasonable possibility is that the buildings they represent may have been Teepee- or dome-like timber-framed structures covered with animal skin, reed/thatch, or turves.
It is quite possible that sites like this are, or were, present along the coastline of the Harray Loch. Much recent agricultural activity has disturbed shallow archaeology like this, and the situation of the site , in a corner adjacent to ploughed fields, presents the possibility that the area has not been touched.
Anybody who has lived in Orkney through a normal Orkney winter will recognise that such light structures as these clearly represent, would not survive, or enable their inhabitants to survive, in an Orkney winter of lashing rain and ferocious gales.
#Barnhouse #Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory

Apr 20, 2025, 14:10 · · · 1 · 0

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