Scord of Brouster

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Scord of Brouster; Remains of house 2

The Scord of Brouster describes a Neolithic settlement on the Shetland island of Mainland in Scotland .

location

The settlement is on what is now the barren Shetland Islands in the North Sea. Even if the country appears inhospitable, the climate in the Stone Age was friendlier, so that a livelihood could be made. The first settlers cleared the predominant forest of willows, hazelnut bushes and birch trees. They fertilized the soil with ashes and dung from their cattle, cattle and sheep. When the weather changed around 1500 BC. Began to deteriorate and the soil deepened, the settlements moved towards the coast. Since then, the former agricultural area lay fallow.

Dating

The found farm was worked for a period of about 1500 years, from about 4000/3000 to 1500 BC. The artifacts found are homogeneous in terms of typology and technology. Only some of the artifacts could be used for accurate dating; so two leaf-shaped arrowheads, which suggest a Neolithic age. Finds from House 3 indicate a dating back to the early Bronze Age.

description

The settlement consists of several oval houses and stone walls of field boundaries. The earliest houses were made of wood and are no longer visible. The remains of three stone houses are clearly visible. House 1 was the first to be built, house 3 is the youngest, next to which there was also a guest house or workshop. There is a barrow near house 2. The houses were surrounded by irregularly cut fields, the stone walls of which can still be seen in part.

The stones found were attributed to three houses and a barrow .

House 1 is oriented on a north-west-south-east axis, the entrance is on the south-east side. It measures approximately 13 m in length, 10 m in width. It also has six indentations that are believed to have been used as sleeping quarters or workshops.

Houses 2 and 3 are about eleven meters long and about 8.2 m wide. In house 2, which is more kidney-shaped, there is a noticeably large indentation of about two meters, which could possibly have served as a sleeping place. In contrast to house 1, there is only one further indentation here.

Artifacts

Large amounts of artifacts in the form of stone fragments were found in houses 1 and 2, but only a few in house 3. A total of almost 10,000 of these contemporary witnesses were found. For example arrowheads that were used either for defense purposes or for hunting. There is also evidence that these tips were made on site. Furthermore, two different forms of knives, which are intended for different tasks. Remains of organic material such as wood or wool were not preserved.
The few finds from House 3 suggest that this building was either only in use for a very short time, or was extensively cleaned, or that it was given a special function - or all three possibilities in combination.

literature

  • Torben Bjarke Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context (= Scottish Archaeological Internet Report. 17). The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland et al., Edinburgh et al. 2005, ISBN 0-903903-86-5 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Information board on site . English, accessed September 4, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context. 2005, illustration 34, p. 27.
  3. ↑ Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context. 2005, Chapter 4.2.
  4. ↑ Scord of Brouster. On The Megalithic Portal. English, accessed September 4, 2017
  5. ↑ a b Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context. 2005, Chapter 4.1.2.
  6. ↑ a b Entry on Scord of Brouster  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
  7. ↑ Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context. 2005, Chapter 4.1.1.
  8. ↑ Ballin: Re-examination of the quartz artefacts from Scord of Brouster: a lithic assemblage from Shetland and its Neolithic context. 2005, Chapter 4.1.4.

Coordinates: 60 ° 14 ′ 55.5 ″  N , 1 ° 32 ′ 21.8 ″  W.