Links of Noltland
The Links of Noltland are an excavated Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological site near Grobust Bay on the north coast of the Orkney Island of Westray in Scotland . The site is believed to be larger than Skara Brae on Mainland .
A Neolithic building was found during excavations in the 1980s. In 2009 the Westray Wife was discovered, a diamond-shaped figure believed to be the earliest representation of a human face found in Scotland. Further figures were found in 2010 and 2012. There may have been several phases of use of the square, as the first figure was likely between 3000 and 2500 BC. Was carved and other structures to 2000 BC. To be dated. Other finds consist of grooved ware , polished bone beads, and tools. The ruins are filled in to protect them from winter storms.
A discovery made in 2009 is a large building called the “village hall”. The structure was about 20 meters wide and had walls about 3.0 meters thick. The finds show a detailed picture of life in the settlement over a long period from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. The residents cultivated fields, grew barley and kept cattle.
Grobust house
In 2015 an almost completely preserved Bronze Age well house with a staircase leading to a 2.5 meter deep originally roofed cistern was found in an eroding hill . The hill initially looked like a burnt mound . The narrow access and densely packed cells suggest that it had a more specialized function than that of a burnt mound and was used more as a gathering place (for a select group). The building, excavated about five meters from the coast on the edge of the Links of Noltland, has been named one of the ten most significant archaeological discoveries of the year.
Bronze Age settlement remains are rare on Orkney. The complexity of the buildings on the links shows that they were important to the community that built them.
Nearby are the Queen o 'Howe Broch , the Lum Head chamber tomb and the ruins of Noltland Castle.
literature
- Hazel Moore, Graham Wilson: Shifting Sands. Links of Noltland, Westray. Interim Report on Neolithic and Bronze Age Excavations, 2007-09 (= Archeology Report. No. 4). Historic Scotland, Edinburgh 2011, ISBN 978-1-84917-051-2 .
Web links
Coordinates: 59 ° 19 ′ 22 ″ N , 3 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ W.