The People of Brodgar

On the circuit of the largest island, which the local residence call the mainland, we first encountered some of the prehistoric settlements that pepper the Orkney Islands. Even before we reached the ancient site of Brodgar, we passed excavated remains of small villages. Burial mounds adjacent often had a 20 foot granite standing-stone placed to the west as much as a quarter-mile away. Even today at the summer solstice the tip of the shadow of the setting sun kisses the crest of these burial mounds. The Brodgar Standing Stones were amazing. The best guess is that they come from sometime around 8000 BC, some 2000 years earlier than Stonehenge. There are several theories about how these large stones were transported to this site and erected into a perfect circle aligned with the sun. Standing erect on their treeless plain, they must have inspired awe in to people who lived their entire lives within sight of them. This infinite expanse of land was their neighborhood, their entire world. Sea level was lower then, and the temperature was warmer. Growing mainly barley, their sheep and the deer they herded supplemented their diet. They probably also used dogs to hunt wild game. Living here for thousands of years, they regarded this as their world until a change in climate turned this area‘s weather inhospitable. Then the residents either starved here or became aggressive, attacking and capturing more benign farmland to the south.Read more