“word in one hand and a Danish axe in the other”

September 12, 2024 5:05 AM

Calling the mound 'howe' would make perfect sense, as 'haug' (pronounced howg) is Old Norse for a mound [Orkneyology]

skara brae, previously

posted by HearHere (5 comments total)

When I was up there we met an old lady who said ‘Eh, when I was a peedie* girl we lived in a stone cottage with no running water and only a fire for heating. I don’t think our life can have been very different from these people’s’

*little
posted by Phanx at 5:59 AM on September 12 [5 favorites]

Oooooh, Skara Brae. I’ve been there. So fascinating! I looked into those little living spaces thought that the creators of “The Flintstones” must have been there too, and used it as inspiration.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:13 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

It was recently established that the so-called 'altar stone' at the heart of Stonehenge originated not from West Wales, as had previously been believed, but from the Orcadian Basin, which includes the Orkneys and parts of north-east Scotland.

Given the Orkneys' evident importance in the Neolithic, an origin in the isles seemed plausible, until that was subsequently ruled out.
posted by misteraitch at 7:16 AM on September 12 [2 favorites]

Adding to this that Orkney Archaeology Society has some good lecture videos online.
posted by paduasoy at 7:57 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Any Skara Brae fans who haven’t yet read Kathleen Fidler’s The Boy with the Bronze Axe are strongly urged to - its a kids book telling of a visitor to the island and imagines, based on solid research, how it would have been to live there. Having said that, Phanx’s peedie girl is right that that life is not so long gone. Generally Orkney and Shetland are amazing altogether, and particularly so for anyone interested in pre-history (and Jimmy Perez).
posted by melisande at 10:02 AM on September 12 [4 favorites]