Skara Brae
Skara Brae
United Kingdom · Orkney, Scotland
In brief
Excavations revealed Neolithic stone houses connected by covered passageways. The stone furniture inside the houses preserves details of prehistoric daily life.
What was found?
- 1Stone houses and covered passageways
Houses built with flat stone slabs are connected by narrow covered passageways. The preserved building arrangement shows the spaces of Neolithic village life in detail.
- 2Stone dressers
The houses contain shelving arrangements made of stone. According to researchers, these may have been used to store and display special belongings.
- 3Stone bed compartments
Inside the houses are bed compartments bounded by stone slabs. These show how sleeping areas were separated within single-room dwellings.
- 4Central hearths
Hearths are located in the middle of the dwellings. The preservation of hearths together with furniture allows the domestic arrangement to be understood.
- 5Carved stone objects
Carefully carved stone objects were recovered during excavations. According to researchers, some may have been used in religious ceremonies; their functions are uncertain.
What does it point to?
Skara Brae shows that Neolithic life was organized around orderly houses, fixed furniture, and shared passageways. Tools, jewelry, and other finds indicate that people who subsisted through farming, hunting, and fishing could produce complex objects.
What did it teach us?
- It tangibly documented the interior arrangement of Neolithic houses, from their beds to their shelves.
- It showed that hunting and fishing were among the village's sources of subsistence alongside farming.
- It revealed that detailed jewelry and carved objects could be produced with simple tools.
Images
Record
- Culture
- Orkney Neolithic communities
- First modern dig
- 1850
- Coordinates
- 59.0487°, -3.3418°
Sources
Nearby excavations
- Ness of Brodgar 9 km
- Vindolanda 455 km
- Star Carr 566 km
- Newgrange 626 km
- Dún Ailinne Ceremonial Site 693 km
- Must Farm Pile-Dwelling Settlement 748 km
- —
- —
- 12.000
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Arkeoloji Dergisi ↗
All excavation sites (385)
Türkiye
- Acemhöyük
- Aizanoi
- Alabanda
- Alacahöyük
- Amos
- Ani
- Aphrodisias
- Arslantepe Mound
- Aspendos
- Assos
- Ayanis Fortress
- Aşıklı Höyük
- Barcın Höyük
- Blaundus
- Boncuklu Höyük
- Can Hasan I
- Carchemish
- Claros Sanctuary
- Clazomenae
- Domuztepe
- Ephesus
- Euromus
- Gordion
- Göbekli Tepe
- Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia
- Hattusha
- Hierapolis
- Iasos
- Kaman-Kalehöyük
- Karahantepe
- Karatepe-Aslantaş
- Kaunos
- Kibyra
- Knidos
- Kültepe-Kanesh
- Laodicea on the Lycus
- Letoon Sanctuary
- Limyra
- Magnesia on the Maeander
- Medieval City of Beçin
- Metropolis in Ionia
- Miletus
- Myra
- Nemrut Dağ
- Nysa on the Maeander
- Olympus in Lycia
- Oymaağaç Höyük — Nerik
- Patara
- Pergamon
- Perge
- Phaselis
- Priene
- Sagalassos
- Sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma
- Sanctuary of Labraunda
- Sapinuwa
- Sardis
- Sayburç
- Side
- Stratonikeia
- Tell Atchana – Alalakh
- Teos
- Tripolis on the Meander
- Troy
- Uluburun Shipwreck
- Xanthos
- Yenikapı – Theodosian Harbour Excavations
- Yeşilova Höyük
- Yumuktepe
- Zerzevan Castle
- Zeugma
- Zincirli Höyük — Sam'al
- Çatalhöyük
- Çavuştepe Fortress
- Çayönü
- Çukuriçi Höyük

