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Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
11–20 of 28 posts
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#12Visited it a couple of years ago, really nice to see. Bit of a Flintstones feeling, with stone beds and cupboards. I was impressed by it, but one should not forget that at the same time this was built the Great Pyramid was already 300 years old.
Wikipedia disagrees.
Skara Brae was occupied about 3190 BC.
Earliest Egyptian pyramids were started about 2630.
The Great Pyramid was built about 2560 BC.
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#13As part of our work in deploying the Natick datacenter to the Orkneys, we had the opportunity to visit Skara Brae, as well as the other Neolithic sites. It is a truly amazing place and the size of the civilization in the Orkneys at that early stage is really incredible.
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#14Another really amazing spot on Orkney is Maeshowe, it's a neolithic cairn (from ~3000 BC) but Vikings in the 12th century looted and desecrated it with a bunch of runic graffiti [1]. It's really cool to experience two facets of history in the same location but millennia apart.
[1] http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/maeshrunes.htm
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#15...and I just learned that Richard Garriott named his island city after something real.
Funny how that name takes me back to memories of a game...
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#16I spent a lot of time in the guild hall there recruiting members to my party between trips to the dungeon[1] :-).
Definitely on a list of interesting places to visit, and it amazes me that places like this were occupied for 600 years and then abandoned long before what I think of as ancient times. How did folks develop the techniques for building these sorts of structures? Some sort of stone age think tank? It is really amazing when you think about it.
[1] This was the city in The Bards Tale which I played all the way to the end, back in the day.
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#17Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#18I spent a lot of time in the guild hall there recruiting members to my party between trips to the dungeon[1] :-). Definitely on a list of interesting places to visit, and it amazes me that places like this were occupied for 600 years and then abandoned long before what I think of as ancient times. How did folks develop the techniques for building these sorts of structures? Some sort of stone age think tank? It is rea…
yes! the mention of skara brae jumps my brain back to the many hours spent in bard's tail.
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#19I spent a lot of time in the guild hall there recruiting members to my party between trips to the dungeon[1] :-). Definitely on a list of interesting places to visit, and it amazes me that places like this were occupied for 600 years and then abandoned long before what I think of as ancient times. How did folks develop the techniques for building these sorts of structures? Some sort of stone age think tank? It is rea…
Tarjan! I remember being stuck for months and not being able to get into the catacombs under the Mad God's temple. I also remember the triumph of actually living through the night for the first time.
Re: Skara Brae – Discovery and Excavation of Orkney's finest Neolithic Settlement
#20I spent a lot of time in the guild hall there recruiting members to my party between trips to the dungeon[1] :-). Definitely on a list of interesting places to visit, and it amazes me that places like this were occupied for 600 years and then abandoned long before what I think of as ancient times. How did folks develop the techniques for building these sorts of structures? Some sort of stone age think tank? It is rea…
Skara Brae also features in some of the Ultima games. Supposedly both companies hired the same consultant who provided some of the same naming ideas to both customers - oops!