Truly astonishing find(s) in a drop-dead gorgeous landscape with that mesmerizing juxtaposition of dark, foreboding hills shrouded in cloud, sunlit glade and cottage by the strand and that dazzling sea mirroring most of it. I feel blessed to see it again 😊
Thank you for sharing this with us! I've lost all my pics from my trip there in 2008. The one I regret losing most was of the Fiddler and the Dancing Giants. Such an enchanted place! Cheers!
Thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the end of cycling Landsend to John o’Groats the weather held fine for a week so I wouldn’t miss the opportunity of heading over to Orkney, and wealth of history.
An absolutely stunning and incredibly beautiful site...with jaw dropping archaeological knowledge of the past 1,000s of years and more just under the feet still uncovered...thank you so much for this video😃😃🌠
Hi Paul, good to hear from you. The idea is it will remain safely covered for the future. 20 years of digs and they have enough material to fill a few museums. But then who knows? Great to hear how you found the video too, great name, story and island. Thank you.
Im a soft southerner from near bournemouth, but my gran lives there and my grandad is buried on orkney. Its an amzing place for sure, absolutely love it there.
It never fails to amaze me how, in our ignorance about places like this, we assume that our ancestors were even more ignorant than we are, as well as being stupid. I think it's entirely probable that they knew vastly more than we do about how to live on this earth, and instead of representing an advance in our species, the present day is, in reality, part of a long decline.
This is a fair point. I think that often. Especially in relation to the dark ages which were quite bright in many ways. To paraphrase CS Lewis we don’t look back on the past we look down on it. Chronological snobbery.
Apart from medical. Examination of still exstant human remains from early civilisations showed how riddled with parasites and disease they were. The short lifespans for most ended miserably.
It's not that they were any more or less intelligent than us, we simply have different fields of knowledge and expertise. There were undoubtedly people just as intelligent as Einstein or Newton or DaVinci back then as well, but given the limited population the they would've been far fewer in number at the time. Imagine what a mind like that could accomplish as far as understanding the land and animals and philosophical things that concerned the people of that era, without being biased by modern knowledge to think a certain way. Who knows what kind of wisdom they had to offer ancient humanity....
Good question. Not as far as I am aware. The site is so layered and sea levels have varied so much then perhaps. The lower levels of the site are not far off the current sea level. I will ask for a more informed answer!
I think what Nick says at the start of it being a microcosm of the world, land wrapped in sea and land is an important point. There is the practical aspects of defence and a safe harbour but the aesthetic qualities of light and sky are very significant. Especially when you think how tied the other monuments are to light, stars and universal cycles. The 360 vista is dominated by the vast heavens above.
In the same way there is clear choice of materials for tools that are aesthetic as well as functional, so the location has practical benefits for defence, farming and travel but it is hard not to experience a sense of awe. Humans are worshipful creatures, so that is a significant factor
I was looking more at the practical side. It's not all that easy to live in Orkney compared to other areas. You have to be really good at handling what I will assume to be primitive boats. You've come a long way too to get there. The weather can be fierce and is not as nice as places further south. Were these people driven there? What were the advantages that made them stay?
@@jeremywilliams5107 yes certainly a tough life but depends on the where they came from. The islands are milder than the arctic where people colonised early on, warmer than the ice age or even more southerly latitudes with continental climates due to the gulf stream. There are fewer diseases in cooler places too, like malaria, so that is an advantage. I sound like Neolithic real estate agent!
There’s a lot of signs of dressed stonework. It may be neolithic in age, but by the sounds of things, it looks like they had iron. I think we miscalculate Iron Age.
After reading books, and viewing Videos on this subject, it seems obvious to me that the builders of these and other structures world wide were skilled. My theory is that some of these examples could have been built by stellar visitors who were perhaps marooned on Earth and were waiting for rescue for an extended time.
Thank you for taking the time to write. Humans are incredibly smart and geologically 5000 years isn’t that long. I suppose it shows we haven’t actually advanced very far.
"stellar visitors" We go into space. The intelligence to do so did not pop into existence just recently. Humans had been working stone for millennia before this site was built.
Truly astonishing find(s) in a drop-dead gorgeous landscape with that mesmerizing juxtaposition of dark, foreboding hills shrouded in cloud, sunlit glade and cottage by the strand and that dazzling sea mirroring most of it. I feel blessed to see it again 😊
It is a special place that stays with you. Were you visiting or working in the trenches?
Thank you for sharing this with us! I've lost all my pics from my trip there in 2008. The one I regret losing most was of the Fiddler and the Dancing Giants. Such an enchanted place! Cheers!
Thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the end of cycling Landsend to John o’Groats the weather held fine for a week so I wouldn’t miss the opportunity of heading over to Orkney, and wealth of history.
Ha! Congratulations on that ride. That’s a great extra stop and possibly a highlight of that journey. Orkney sits in a class all of its own.
An absolutely stunning and incredibly beautiful site...with jaw dropping archaeological knowledge of the past 1,000s of years and more just under the feet still uncovered...thank you so much for this video😃😃🌠
Thank you for watching and sharing your enthusiasm for the past. I do wonder what is out there to discover. This site is an incredible place.
"Uncovered a stone..... the rest is history." Indeed it is. All of it.
Ha. Exactly. The past animating the present.
Thanks Kieran. That is amazing.
Thanks for watching, it is a truly remarkable place.
will this site be able to be seen in the future? wonderful captured piece of history. I came to to this via Hamish Auskerry and his family.
Hi Paul, good to hear from you. The idea is it will remain safely covered for the future. 20 years of digs and they have enough material to fill a few museums. But then who knows? Great to hear how you found the video too, great name, story and island. Thank you.
Im a soft southerner from near bournemouth, but my gran lives there and my grandad is buried on orkney. Its an amzing place for sure, absolutely love it there.
It’s a wonderful place to go and have an excuse to return there. Is your gran on the mainland or another island?
Lovely little video postcard from the closing site, thanks for creating it. (And, for the algorithm: ⌛)
It never fails to amaze me how, in our ignorance about places like this, we assume that our ancestors were even more ignorant than we are, as well as being stupid. I think it's entirely probable that they knew vastly more than we do about how to live on this earth, and instead of representing an advance in our species, the present day is, in reality, part of a long decline.
This is a fair point. I think that often. Especially in relation to the dark ages which were quite bright in many ways. To paraphrase CS Lewis we don’t look back on the past we look down on it. Chronological snobbery.
Apart from medical. Examination of still exstant human remains from early civilisations showed how riddled with parasites and disease they were. The short lifespans for most ended miserably.
It's not that they were any more or less intelligent than us, we simply have different fields of knowledge and expertise. There were undoubtedly people just as intelligent as Einstein or Newton or DaVinci back then as well, but given the limited population the they would've been far fewer in number at the time. Imagine what a mind like that could accomplish as far as understanding the land and animals and philosophical things that concerned the people of that era, without being biased by modern knowledge to think a certain way. Who knows what kind of wisdom they had to offer ancient humanity....
@@howardsimpson489A visit to India might reinforce your perception, going to the Ganges where people are committing to their beliefs.
This was built around the same time as Newgrange in Ireland and, from artifacts found, the peoples were in contact with each other.
Yes and the altar stone of Stonehenge was from this geological area. People liked to travel, even then.
I wonder what the sea level was back then.
Someone else asked that and I will have a better answer next week!
Has there been any signs that the archeology extends offshore, or has anybody searched out there?
Good question. Not as far as I am aware. The site is so layered and sea levels have varied so much then perhaps. The lower levels of the site are not far off the current sea level. I will ask for a more informed answer!
He said it wasn't domestic. So what were the buildings used for?
They were gathering places, although exact reason is uncertain. There were domestic sites nearby but these are altogether bigger.
It’s a shame that despite mentioning the website twice the address wasn’t given to us
All links were in the video description. Thanks for watching and sharing!
The question that always springs to mind is - why the Orkneys? Saying "it's an impressive place" doesn’t cut it for me.
I think what Nick says at the start of it being a microcosm of the world, land wrapped in sea and land is an important point. There is the practical aspects of defence and a safe harbour but the aesthetic qualities of light and sky are very significant. Especially when you think how tied the other monuments are to light, stars and universal cycles. The 360 vista is dominated by the vast heavens above.
Why not, why anywhere...
In the same way there is clear choice of materials for tools that are aesthetic as well as functional, so the location has practical benefits for defence, farming and travel but it is hard not to experience a sense of awe. Humans are worshipful creatures, so that is a significant factor
I was looking more at the practical side. It's not all that easy to live in Orkney compared to other areas. You have to be really good at handling what I will assume to be primitive boats. You've come a long way too to get there. The weather can be fierce and is not as nice as places further south. Were these people driven there? What were the advantages that made them stay?
@@jeremywilliams5107 yes certainly a tough life but depends on the where they came from. The islands are milder than the arctic where people colonised early on, warmer than the ice age or even more southerly latitudes with continental climates due to the gulf stream. There are fewer diseases in cooler places too, like malaria, so that is an advantage. I sound like Neolithic real estate agent!
There’s a lot of signs of dressed stonework. It may be neolithic in age, but by the sounds of things, it looks like they had iron. I think we miscalculate Iron Age.
After reading books, and viewing Videos on this subject, it seems obvious to me that the builders of these and other structures world wide were skilled. My theory is that some of these examples could have been built by stellar visitors who were perhaps marooned on Earth and were waiting for rescue for an extended time.
Thank you for taking the time to write. Humans are incredibly smart and geologically 5000 years isn’t that long. I suppose it shows we haven’t actually advanced very far.
"stellar visitors"
We go into space.
The intelligence to do so did not pop into existence just recently.
Humans had been working stone for millennia before this site was built.
I think I follow, the steller visitors traveled dozens of light years only to crash and leave a crew of stone masons on Orkney.
😂
Exactly. No need for stellar visitors. They were probably just visiting from Aberdeenshire.
This Is Breathtaking.
Question; We’re The Rubber Tires Also Discovered In The Site? We’re They Carbon Dated? 🥸
Yes authentic neolithic tyres.😂