Ness of Brodgar Update

I last wrote about the Ness of Brodgar Site back in 2009, when the excavators were just announcing the discovery of their remarkable Neolithic temple. But excavations have been carried out every summer since, and finds from this year have just been in the news.

Radiocarbon dates show that the site was occupied for about a thousand years, from 3200 to 2300 BCE. The area uncovered so far includes four houses and Structure 10, the apparent temple.

The excavators have found several distinct pottery types. Most sites in the Orkneys produce only one or two, and they interpret this to mean that people from a large area, including other islands, regularly met at Brodgar.

Structure 10 is a fascinating building. It measures about 25 meters (82 feet) long by 20 meters (65 feet) wide, and the walls of the building are as much as 5 meters (16 feet) thick. It is interesting that despite all the effort that went into building this thing, its inner chamber is only 6 meters (19 feet) across. It would obviously not hold all of the community whose efforts went toward constructing the temple, or even all the inhabitants of Brodgar itself. In this it is like other Neolithic religious structures, such as the temples on Malta and the great burial mounds. Who was allowed in this inner sanctum? Was it limited to priests, or initiates? Or would most people enter at least once in their lives, for coming of age rituals or family rites?

Surviving traces show that the interior of the building was painted. Much more evidence has been found of carved stone, more than 400 pieces in all.

The people of Neolithic Europe, with enough to eat and not much warfare, put a whole lot of of energy into communal religion.