Two neolithic crannogs have been found near the Outer Hebrides in northwest Scotland, Antiquity reports. They turned out to be older than Stonehenge: scientists dated the ceramics found near the islands to the period of 3.3-3.6 thousand years BC.
Crannogs in Scotland, Ireland and Wales are called partially or completely artificial islands built on rivers or lakes. They were used for housing from the Neolithic period to the 17th – 18th centuries. Crannogs were wooden platforms mounted on piles in shallow water on which houses stood, or burial mounds, partially or completely built of logs or piled from stones. Most of them survived in Ireland (about 1200), the official list of crannogs in Scotland includes 347 places. Until recently, Eilean Domhnuill was considered the oldest surviving crane. It was built near one of the Outer Hebrides, North Uist, between 3650 and 2500 BC.
However, in 2012, it was revealed that Ilen Donnell was not the only Neolithic Crannog in the Outer Hebrides. Local resident Chris Murray, a former Royal Navy submariner, found well-preserved Early or Middle Neolithic ceramic pots near a small uninhabited island in the archipelago during one of his dives. Murray later dived near Lewis and Harris Island, the largest of the Outer Hebrides, with the curator of the Stornoway Museum of Local History, Mark Elliot, and also discovered Neolithic pottery.
One of the earthenware vessels that Chris Murray found.
Archaeologists led by Duncan Garrow of the University of Reading joined Murray in 2016–2017. Scientists have conducted research in three bays near Lewis and Harris using sonar, sonar, diving, bathymetry, aerial and underwater photogrammetry. As a result, archaeologists found two islets. One of them, in Loch Vorgastel Bay, was completely artificial (22 × 26 meters), the other (19 × 17 meters) was built on a cliff protruding from the water in Loch Langawat Bay. For the construction of both islands, the ancient inhabitants of the Hebrides used stones weighing up to 250 kilograms and, possibly, logs that have not survived. Researchers found several clay pots near the crane legs. They were dated 3640-3360 BC, that is, they turned out to be older than Stonehenge (presumablyit was built 2-3 thousand years BC).
A few years ago, archaeologists found buildings in the Orkney Islands (an archipelago in the north-east of Scotland) dating back to 1000-4000 BC. One of them may have been a sauna or bathhouse for ritual purposes.
Ekaterina Rusakova