Rocky soil, waves crashing on the coast, heather-covered wastelands … This is what most of the islands of the Orkney archipelago, located off the coast of Scotland, look like today. Only 20 of the 70 pieces of land are inhabited today. And once life was in full swing here!
The violent storm that struck the west coast of Mainland in 1850 led not only to a series of disasters, but also to major archaeological discoveries.
Elemental gift
The storm raged for several days, and when it subsided, the sailors found something strange on board a fishing schooner, fishing for cod, that they had not previously seen. These were the skeletons of strangely shaped stone houses, whose walls were previously hidden under hills washed by sea water. The fishermen told about their find, and the news reached London.
But in the Royal Geographical Society, the message was received with indifference: you never know in the territory of Foggy Albion, small settlements of the Vikings, which they used as ports during their voyages. And getting to a remote and deserted area in those days was problematic.
Therefore, only in 1913 the first expedition appeared on the shores of Mainland Island. True, at first their backbone was made up of cavers who decided to explore the local caves. A little later, Professor Boyd Dawkins came to the Orkney Archipelago as part of such an expedition.
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Perhaps the scientist would have limited himself to the study of caverns, but chance turned the development of this story in the right direction. The professor was invited to visit, Lord Belfour Stewart, the owner of the local land. And so during five o'clock tea - so, by the way - he mentioned the buildings in the town of Skara Bray. Dawkins became interested and went to the coast.
The professor was greatly puzzled by what he saw. Dawkins had a good grasp of history and therefore looked at the buildings in surprise. No, they didn't look like Viking buildings. Then what is it? Having asked the lord to take measures to preserve the settlement - the storms either brought it in with sand and bottom sediments, then carried them back to the sea - the scientist hurried to London.
And here he told about this discovery to the scientist-archaeologist, Professor Gordon Childe. He at first categorically stated that these are the remains of a settlement of the Pictish - irreconcilable enemies of the Romans-invaders and Scots, who were driven out by the latter to these places around the 9th century.
Strange settlement
Indeed, such a nationality existed. As scientists assume, its first representatives had Iberian roots, and in those distant times, when an isthmus existed between the present British Isles and the continent, which subsequently sank to the bottom of the sea, they moved to the shores of Foggy Albion.
But when Child arrived in mid-1924, he was confused.
The archaeologist was alarmed by the fact that the entrances to all eight surviving buildings did not exceed one meter in height. However, excavations of the ancient burials of the Pictish people showed that their average height did not differ from the height of modern people. There are also descriptions of the appearance of men of this ethnicity - slender, dark-haired people of the Caucasian type with long narrow heads.
The bewilderment intensified when they managed to get inside the first building - stone beds, judging by their length, could only shelter a child. And then it dawned on the scientist: in fact, this is not a Pictish village, representatives of some other nationality lived here, and the age of the houses dates back to the Neolithic era and dates back to 3100-2500 BC. By the way, in the 1970s, scientists, using radiocarbon analysis, confirmed Professor Child's guess.
So, what appeared to the eyes of the participants of the first expedition? Mica sandstone was used as a building material, and the houses were built in a round shape - probably in order to have a lower wind load. The foundations of the houses were somewhat buried in the ground, which made it possible to save heat, and the building itself was surrounded by an earthen mound, again for better thermal insulation.
Unfortunately, there were problems with the wood, so for the ceiling beams they used driftwood collected from the seashore or the bones of the skeleton of whales that in those days lived in northern waters and which were often thrown out on the coast. The ceiling itself consisted of stretched reindeer skins, reinforced with leather ropes, on which layers of peat were laid.
Another interesting detail is that the houses were built on heaps of rubbish. That is, at first a landfill was formed, and then a buried foundation was erected in its place. It is possible that for stability and, again, thermal insulation.
I must say that at that time the local residents lived in good living conditions. The premises were heated with a stove, which was heated with the same peat. However, the room was one large room with an area of about 40 square meters, from which a pantry and … a toilet were separated. Yes, there was a fairly well-built sewage system in the settlement, and fresh water, thanks to rains and with the help of drains, accumulated in huge stone reservoirs.
The main food of the natives was fish, which was caught from the shore - after all, there was nothing to build wooden ships. In reserve and for the winter, dried venison was prepared. In addition, the climatic conditions of the time favored agriculture, and flour cakes made up a significant part of the local population's diet. Skillful masons made furniture of stone - cabinets, chests and beds.
Who are they?
So it could be assumed that a large settlement existed on the coast of the bay, which was gradually (or almost immediately?) Swallowed up by the sea. It was not possible to establish what the aborigines looked like. Most likely, their burial grounds, in contrast to the burials of the Pictish preserved on the islands, also disappeared under the water column. So who were they, the first Orcneans of the Neolithic era?
Scientists have suggested that they arrived on the shores of Scotland on a ship that crashed on the coastal rocks during a storm. And since there was nothing to build a new ship from, they had to settle down in a new place. Some food for thought was provided by excavations on the territory of Skara Bray.
For example, it turned out that the eighth surviving building, whose interior was divided into cells, was a workshop where craftsmen made the simplest tools of production, such as stone axes or needles from fish bones, as well as key rings and jewelry.
But it was not possible to explain the purpose of bone and stone artifacts depicting pyramids. And then the "Egyptian version" was born. Scientists suggested that emigrants from Egypt settled in these places at one time - more precisely, representatives of the caste of priests.
What is the drawing on this artifact from Skara Brae? Just a pattern of crossed lines or a stylistic pyramid?
The purpose of these balls has not yet been clarified.
The following arguments were presented as arguments. First, the level of construction was striking, which was characteristic only for Egypt at that time. Further, the earthenware found during the excavations was very similar in style and appearance to the products of ancient Egyptian potters.
And the people themselves, who lived in those days on the shores of the Gulf of Suez, were short by today's standards, something about 150 centimeters. Hence the small entrances to the dwellings.
Finally, the drawings and inscriptions made on the walls, wardrobes and beds aroused particular interest among scientists. The first resembled a lunar calendar tied to the image of the solar system and the signs of the zodiac, which was known to Egyptian astronomers.
But the inscriptions were initially considered to be runic symbols.
But upon closer analysis, it became clear that only sixteen letters were used in the runic symbols, and the signs of the Orkney letters were more reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Unfortunately, the Egyptians did not particularly bother themselves with maintaining chronicles describing the migrations, and the few papyrus records that were still created were mostly destroyed by Alexander the Great during the capture of Heliopolis. So the mystery of the island, most likely, will never be solved.
Sergey URANOV, magazine "Riddles of History", 2017