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After the Mesolithic hunters came the Mesolithic farmers in about 4000BC, and the new lifestyle they brought with them was gradually adopted throughout Scotland. The introduction of agriculture
and controlled stock breeding led to a more settled life on the first permanent farms, and a mode of existence - based on mixed farming with fishing and hunting where necessary - was developed which was to change little
in many parts of Scotland until comparatively recently. During these early times in Scotland, the combination of Highland terrain, dense woodland and boggy moorlands meant that the sea presented the only realistic means
for access. For this reason, the early colonisation of Scotland tended to follow two routes: up the east coast from England or north west Europe, and along the west coast from Ireland or western England.. The earliest
Neolithic colonisation thus took place in coastal areas, and the fertile soils of Orkney, Aberdeenshire, Angus and central Perthshire proved attractive to the settlers. It is the dwellings and burial tombs of
these Neolithic people who lived and died around 6000 years ago that comprise the earliest standing buildings that still survive in Scotland. Coastal corrosion, however, has undoubtedly destroyed many of the first early
settlements, since those that have been found and excavated illustrate a mature and confident farming economy. While some remains have been found on the Scottish mainland, the best preserved Neolithic houses are to be
found in Orkney (though contemporary farming settlements, complete with the walls outlining the fields and stock enclosures around each farm, can still be found in Shetland). At Knap of Howar, on the Island of Papa
Westray in the northern part of Orkney, there is a farm which was founded around 3600BC and was the home for successive generations of a family over the next five hundred years. Here two fine buildings still stand
side by side, still nestled in a blanket of sand that preserved them but now open to the sky. One building was once the farm house, its two rooms furnished with stone and timber benches and the great grinding stone (or
quern) still in place in the kitchen. The other building was the farmhouses workshop-cum-barn with sturdily built hearth and cupboards.Knap of Howar was a flourishing farm, cultivating the adjacent land and breeding
cattle and sheep, while also fishing in the nearby sea. One taste is certainly close to many a modern heart: oysters. The farm midden was crammed with oyster shells. Some of these shells were ground down into grit to
strengthen the local clay from which their pottery was made; the manufacture of pottery was another of the innovations of the Neolithic era and would have been a welcome addition to the wooden and leather containers of
earlier times. The chambered cairns of these first farmers are the oldest large stone structures in Britain, and over a thousand of them have been found in Scotland. Built to house and honour the dead, the cairns belong
to several distinct types but in all of them the stone burial chamber is covered with mounds of stones and the approach to the chamber is through a long lintelled passage from the edge of the mound. These dark vaults,
which are often only accessible on hands and knees, received the dead of their communities over many centuries, and it is clear that in some cases the bones of earlier interments were tidied to one side of the chamber
to make way for new burials. We do not know whether all members of a community were buried this way, or only a few favoured class or groups of families. What we do know is that life expectancy was very short. A
careful examination of the bones from the 'Tomb of the Eagles' at Lsbister on South Ronaldsay, for example, provides a sad picture of Neolithic life; many deaths occurred in childhood and most people died between 15 and
30 with very few living on till 50. The bones tell of a life of considerable physical discomfort, for more than half the adults suffered from crippling osteoarthritis. The farmers and their wives were not, as it is
popularly believed, of very much smaller stature than we are today: on average men were some 5'7" tall and women about 5'3". Remains of bone from dogs, fish, deer, and even sea eagles have also been found in the burial
chambers with some tombs containing large concentrations of one particular type. These animal remains may therefore be the emblem of individual tribes or families. Fragments of broken pottery have also been found
scattered in different parts of the tombs and suggest that pottery was deliberately smashed in some sort of ritual or ceremony. The large blocks of stone were employed in the construction of the chambers have ensured
that many tombs still remain today as memorials to their builders of 6000 years ago. Maes Howe in Orkney, perhaps the most remarkable of these tombs also shows the careful orientation of the structure, for at mid winter
the setting sun shines straight along the passage and casts a light on the rear wall of the chamber. |
