Stonehall

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The Neolithic village of Stonehall is one of the more recent archaeological discoveries in Orkney, Scotland . It is located at Finstown near Cuween Hill Cairn on Mainland Island . The excavation of Stonehall extended over three years. The excavation has uncovered a number of Neolithic houses. Stonehall is an exception among the Orcadian settlements because of the length of its use.

The box house

The Crate House is Stonehall's most interesting discovery. It is a late Neolithic structure of a type never discovered before on Orkney. Located in the shadow of the Cuween Hill Cairn, this building-like structure consisted of a stone box that apparently stood on the floor of a circular building. The box house in the center of the settlement was surrounded by trenches. One of the trenches led to a late Neolithic house directly opposite. With its hearth and stone furnishings, this house was similar to those found in Skara Brae . The box house differs from the surrounding houses because of the unusually poor workmanship. It is, what was also found in other parts of the Orkney ( Knap of Howar ), built on waste, has no foundations for the walls and was certainly not a residential building. The box did not contain any human or other remains. The house with the box dates from the late Neolithic Age (3000 to 2500 BC) and must have something to do with the cult of the dead, especially since it occupies a central position in the settlement. Not far from the box was a bowl-shaped depression made of clay in the ground. Its purpose is unknown, but it may have had something to do with activities within the central structure.

The relationship with the Cuween Hill Cairn

The theory that the Neolithic Cairn acted as a territorial marker for the communities is too simplistic, and not just in the opinion of excavation director Colin Richards. The excavators assumed that there was a one-to-one correlation between the burial ground of a community and the village. However, it is a far more complex religious scheme that has not yet been understood.

literature

  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Colin Renfrew : Megaliths, territories and populations. In: Sigfried J. De Laet (Ed.): Acculturation and continuity in atlantic Europe mainly during the Neolithic Period and the Bronze Age. Papers presented at the IV. Atlantic Colloquium, Ghent 1975 (= Dissertationes archaeologicae Gandenses. 16, ZDB -ID 1118177-1 ). De Tempel, Brugge 1976, pp. 198-220.

Web links

Coordinates: 58 ° 59 '46.8 "  N , 3 ° 6' 22.7"  W.