Video interview with Neil Oliver on Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- The writer and broadcaster Neil Oliver is our guest this week and he takes us off on a fascinating tour of that enchanting Neolithic settlement: Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands.
For a change we thought we'd post some video. We hope you enjoy it and, as ever, for much more head over to www.tttpodcast....
Neil Oliver's new book, A History of the World in 100 Moments is available now.
Show notes
Scene One: A day in the life of Skara Brae
Scene Two: The great mystery of the settlement's abandonment
Scene Three: Where did the people go?
Memento: A sharp stone knife
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Neil Oliver
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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I just discovered the thoughts of Neil Oliver. What a wonderful individual. If only our leaders would allow him to advise in world affairs. Hope would be back on the table
Yeah, I just discovered this Neil Oliver feller as well. So the algorithm has been working it. I really like this guy.
They're civil servants, not our leaders. People seem to have forgotten that.
You should watch Coast, its a great info-documentary show about the coastal regions of Great Britain, as well as a season in Australia. It really shows his human side and how much he loves culture. He is an honest and stalwart man. We need more people like him.
@@nolanroberts2710 Thank you, I will definitely take a look at it.
Oh my!!
Have you just discovered Neil Oliver, you've got much to catch up on!. He has a sincere passion about human history, his observations are so beautifully & eloquently translated, so that we are able to re-live the fascination of 100s to 1000s of historic events of years gone by.. He brings it to life in such a perfect manner. Apparently he says he's not a historian, but an archaeologist & he's a blummin good journalist!
Three Cheers for Neil, what a fabulous way to learn about our past.. Keep it coming Neil 👌👍😊
Neil Oliver is a man of integrity so rare nowadays. Thank you for being ❤️🇭🇷
Your so-called "rambling" story of the little girl in red on the plane was so profound and a beautiful tribute to her and the loss of her. It made me emotional and know many of us who's heard you, remember, and honor her now as well.
The great Neil Oliver, the British Isles wouldn't be so wonderful without your passion and input sir. Thankyou 👏🏻👏🏼👏🏽 🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴
Neil has a profound inner sense about the world past & present
His soft brogue makes listening even more compelling
He’s so very smart but so very humble. Love him so much. Please make a lot more stories as we live for them
Thank you!
I'd like to listen to Neil Oliver talk about everything.
Same. I could listen to him explaining how a washing machine works 😂
@@theclumsyprepper Yes, indeed He has such of soothing voice, he is so reassurance
He is on Patreon.
Also his Coast to Coaat is on yt
Absolutely agree ! 🍒🍒🍒..Me 2.
Marie.
I was born in Musselburgh Scotland. It warms my heart that Neil Oliver is an amazing person and he cares and understands so much x
Neil has such a way with verbal 'imagery ', a true inspirational person.
I wish Neil had been my teacher I absolutely am in awe of his knowledge and wisdom God Bless you both the good times are coming for humanity
Thank you for your lovely comment.
Just subbed. Neil Oliver is such a great fella, a truly modest and humble historian. YES, he is modest and humble to say he is not a historian, but he's far more knowledgeable than many high profile Historians, including some TV Historians with Masters Degrees etc. Big Up Neil Oliver! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😊😊😊😊😊😊
Neil oliver is the sanity voice of Britain should be running our country fact top man
Your version of a journalist is the correct one IE dig for the truth. Unfortunately the journalists we have don't report the truth
Great interview ... Neil Oliver is a brilliant mind and moralist...
Neil Oliver love your work
Just stumbled across this post. Have to listen to more, and then go read those books. Fascinating and essential reading for today.
I'm not sure why, but I found myself moved to tears as I was listening to the story about The Little Girl In The Red Dress. 😭
Wow. Such profound stories about our common humanity. Ive always loved this way of thinking about time and history we each get to be a part of. Every time I hold a beautiful rock in my hand, I think of all the precious life that came before now, which we can't ever know, but that surely existed,and somehow we are yet connected to that life. It puts everything today back into perspective for me.
"If one person doesn't matter,then none of us matter." Loved this.
Those profound words absolutely stunned me. It's awesome to wonder about the wisdom in the human species that moves in spirit through the timeless space and matter throughout eternity, as civilizations rise and fall.
Wise words indeed. Thank you Dorothy.
Not at all ""strange""that you were ""moved to tears""as you are saying;.
Neil O. HAS that Power and Art of re--telling us stories from the Past / now also from the ""Present"" in such a way that many of us reach for a hankechief/ paper tissue To Wipe our Tears ...That s how profoundly Human he is and Exceptional ad well....I like the Gentleman who is interviewing him as well Both of them are gentle & wise & Soothing
Let them be Blessed.😊
I work from home and have two kids at home right now. The noise of it all and the at-times chaos of life I find to be exhilarating. Love your videos, Neil.
I just stumbled upon this interview and it was very enjoyable. I have a lot of time for Neil Oliver as we share a similar interest. I'm not academic either but have devoted a lot time to my interest in local history and archaeology, writing a few books on it over the years. I understand completely what he means about places speaking to you from the past. Some places are so eerie in their tranquility and absence of lives that were once there. As for objects from the past, I have a 200-year-old pewter tankard that once hung in an inn in my town and on special occasions I drink out of it. I often wonder who the first person was to do that.
People like you are those who keep communities alive.
I used to work at Genesee Country Museum in upstate NY. I was one of the interpreters, and spent all day talking with people about how the original occupants lived. But for the first hour of every day, as we set up our demonstrations, each of us was the only person in our building. It was very easy to feel connected to all the people who had ever lived or worked in these places. Everyone who worked there felt that the house or shop spoke to us from the past.
Just in awe of how Neil's mind works, he's so fascinating. ❤
Awesome, I love hearing what Neil has to say, so interesting, informed and intelligent 💚💙xx
That is a fascinating program. Neil spoke about some of things I've pondered, the origin of the ancient Orkney population and its possible influence of Orkney on the rest of the British Isles, the pattern that civilizations go through and the lure of history.
Just discovered this amazing person and absolutely adore the mindset!
So glad!
I love the imagery of having our dead around us. I sense the spirits of my deceased families passing through the peak of the ceilings in my small home. I would be comfortable having their bones here. I would welcome it actually. My daughter, when the time comes, would like to have me composted like they are starting to do in facilities in California, but she wants to keep my skull. These days I believe this is illegal, keeping the skull intact. If it was crushed as cremains it would be ok. Maybe if I live long enough she will be able to keep my skull.
The bump by the reef could refer to pregnancy. In Hindu culture there is the circle dance of Ras Garba in the time of Navaratri every Autumn. Ras Garba means Womb and the dance is done by the community, women, men of all ages and teens and children in India and Diaspora. Maybe the bump is like this womb.
I think you are right about us not remembering beyond great grandparents. Save famous folks in one's familiy line. For example, my mother's family goes back to Noah Webster, the dictionary guy. But my mother was an only child and died suddenly and unexpectedly when I was 33. The knowledge of her family history largely died with her. I have a love of family history and, miraculously, so does my only child, and one of my cousins.
"objects contain absent people" - love this
If we could have someone like you in the government we would be all fine. xx
Maybe we should have a Department of Archeology/Philosophy/Questioners acting in an advisory capacity.
I admire Neil’s thinking about change. Not necessarily good or bad, and looking back, we often don’t know why a radical change occurred.
At around 40 minutes, Neil says that it was assumed that the husband and wife slept in separate beds in the Skara Brae houses. Isn't it more likely that the husband and wife slept in the big bed and the children slept in the small bed? I scratch my head at why historians don't apply attachment biology in their perceptions of the past, except as a sign of how disconnected we all are in the present. Neil touches on this more when he discusses life and death. I especially appreciate the discussion about forgetting. If I could bring back a piece of material history, I would bring back a piece of pottery, perhaps a cup. Thank you Peter for this interview, as I once made a great study of the early dolmens and henges of the British Isles, and how fascinating it is that they spread all through western Europe and yet we know so little about their purposes. This one interview has peaked my interest again in learning about Skara brae and beyond. Cheers.
Or maybe the father and all the male children slept in one bed and the mother and all the female children slept in the other. Or the family slept in one bed and the servants slept in the other. Or the ones who retired for the night early slept in one bed and those whose stayed up later slept in the other. I've always been uncomfortable with the almost completely male assumptions about interpretations of archeological finds.....
In the Neolithic period temperatures were 1-2 degrees warmer than today and crops were grown in Orkney until the climate became colder and wetter.
I remember watching coverage of the memorial that people made after the Lockerbie disaster, and the camera lingered on that note to the little girl. I have never forgotten it, either.
not a sparrow falls unnoticed by the historians and archaeologists who are the lovers of mankind
I would like to add to the point on what the ancient people did with their dead, that perhaps we are similar in as much as people keep their departed loved ones cremated remains ,in a wee urn on the mantle piece . Excellent program thank you, and greetings from Zimbabwe ,
Just discovered him today! Have forwarded on to friends a link to his presentations on GB News and getting rave reviews!
Mr. Oliver I was inspired by your talk on Orkney and so I looked at a podcast on the Orkney Islands done by a couple who had visited. They showed a person crawling through that little entry into what would have been a home tho not much of the home remained of course. I had thought about this when you gave your idea that the small entry was perhaps to keep out drafts of cold air and yet even then I thought --I don't think necessarily so. WHEN I saw this person crawl through the small entrance on the other video I was once again reminded of my trip to Alaska and going to the homes created by the native peoples of Alaska wherein they had a small entrance you would crawl through to gain access to the home.
They'd said it was to mimic the birth canal that the babies goes thru to enter the world. Hence, as you are very spiritual I think you might want to meditate on that level of understanding vis a vis the fubdamental reason the entrance was small and necessitated kneeling down n crawling-- much as a baby would--into the ❤ of the home⛺
THANK YOU
This is a fascinating piece of information - thanks! You might like a book called The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard. It's all about what meanings we in the Western world assign to certain spaces in and around houses. I wish there was one like it for all the cultures of the world.
I listen to these broadcasts, over and over. Interesting, informative, and Neil Oliver has a very warm style of speaking about history, people, places.
Beautiful message ❤️
"I'm not an archeologist or an academic"
That only makes you MORE credible Neil, not less. Keep up the great work.
??? He is totally a qualified archaeologist ... he just considers himself more of a broadcaster journalist than a stiff upper lip academic is what he was saying....
He is definitely an archaeologist - he did a brilliant video on discovering new finds of the battle of Stirling with a newly qualified fellow archaeologist ( name forgotten ) - the video starts off with a newly qualified Oliver waiting, outside his flat, for his friend to turn up. Perhaps he meant to say in this interview that he no longer uses his time digging and explaining. Perhaps you have to do so many hours digging to keep your title? Strange thing to say though, that he isn't an archaeologist. He has also been described as a historian in the past, on his book sleeves etc.
It was just a misquote, people. Neil said I'm not a historian I'm an archaeologist - but that he loves history.
so, have you had enough of experts? Do you think that in-depth study makes opinions less valuable? What are you trying to say? p.s Mr Oliver has an MA (hons) in archeology, doesn't make him an 'expert' but way above most
"The little girl in red" so sad..
Neil Oliver tells fascinating stories.
I fully agree ; Neil O. is -- as I said recently -- Heaven- Sent to this country - Great Britain -- home to so many of us who have always admired U.K for its Love of so many Freedoms which had not been available for a long time in other countries of the World.
Studying history helps form my perception. A very real perception of reality
I just love Neil Oliver ❤️
Neil Oliver should be officially recognized as the voice of common sense and truth and reason. He is our Shakespeare.
May GOD bless
Orkney is magical. Was there in May.
Forgetting is a very quick thing. Having immigrated to the US from South Africa in 1970, I 'drove' past the house we lived in in Johannesburg via Google Earth. Today it is a used car seller. Certainly no one now there knows that such and such room was my bedroom, and since my family has passed on, I am the last remaining person on earth that knows that, or how we lived in that house.
Morphic resonance carries the memory of nature, never ending expanding
This is a total joy to watch. Thankyou xxx
I am currently listening to Neil’s podcast “The History of the World in 100 Moments”, after finishing “Love Letters the the British Isles”. I learned so very much from him - my favourite historian by far
No words can express what a wonderful human being this man is. I listen as often as i can . Interview with Lawrence Fox (reform party) was absolutely amazing . If everyone could listen , all this evil in the world would end .
Sadly, I feel that the recent explosion of information from the archaeological past has come as we are losing so much traditional culture. As meaningless screens replace sacred texts and familial linkages, how many have no clue what has slipped into the mists?
Most of us, I fear.
This was excellent! Thank you🐝🤗❤️
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TravelsThroughTime 🤗
My parents were born 1921 and 1923, in the USA. They both had siblings die young, and they used to talk about them keeping the bodies in the home, for the viewing or wake. Somewhere along the way, the funeral homes came along. I don't know what year that would have been. I know the same for Europe as well, but I imagine funeral homes came later in Europe - I'm not sure.
I think some Catholic communities still have the old style wakes with the body present but they usually do the funeral homes now and the wake starts after the funeral. Things have calmed down recently but I'm old enough to have been to a couple of old school wakes and there was an inebriated poetry to them.
I am a Scot now 85 yrs old. Unfortunately in my very young life several members of my family died. They died at home. A doctor would be called to issue the death certificate. The funeral company came to the home , the body was dressed and placed in the coffin which remained in the home until the day of the funeral. Friends and neighbours were welcome to come to pay respects. This was quite a usual thing.
When a person died in hospital then of course it was different.
Neil Oliver #LeKingInTheNorth . Top Show .
thank you for a wonderful program. i will now be an avid reader, or audio listener if i can find the audio versio. Thank you its been great.
You are welcome!
Neil O such an interesting
talented guy 👌
Wonderful interview!
Thanks Joe!
@@TravelsThroughTime Ditto Mr. Valdez' comments, 100%. We need hope, not destruction.
I came here from a side link and I'm so glad I clicked on it, brilliant
People of our pasts were likely more naturally human. More connected with natures rhythms. I was told that my maternal Great grandfather and Great grandmother, both lived, met and married on the Orkney’s. I’d love the opportunity to look into that. Interesting chat gents 👍🏼
dude! Just found your channel and freakn loved it man! I will now binge watch some of your shows
Just so ya know...i did that...& it's Heartwrenching when ya realise ya just watched the last video.......now, i am like a junkie waiting for his next fix/commentary on that news program...
Excellent. Thank you.
Thanks Stephen!
Lovely to see you again , Dear Neil 🤗🤗🤗😏...and the Other gentleman ; Greatly captivating NARRATIVE dear friends ; how strange I too have been dreaming long ago of visiting that Magic Orkney Site -- N of Br ;
I really enjoy how you are telling us about it here ; All the Best Mr Oliver ! ( am I right to remember that you told us -- some time ago -- that on your Mum " s side your Ancestry came from Central Europe ? So do I.
God Bless You and ; Never give up ! Marie..xxx.
Thank you!
Fantastic I really enjoyed that
Thank you!
I'd love to ask Neil what he actually said between 20:20 and 20:40. It's the only audio error in over an hour of video and it happens when he is telling the truth passionately.
Very many interesting perspectives in your reportage I was reminded of Catal höyük when you talked abt the dead ( the 2 buried women in the house) and these hangs of stones like in Göbekli Tepe circular stone setting with hanged stones. It s amazing that far distances but never the less similarities. Another thing here You were talking about the name of the place and Hauge was mentioned. "Haug" or "hauge" is an artificial high you will find that if you search in the old Nordic language and there is a town in Norway (on the westcoast) called Haugesund close to Avaldsnes. The rich Viking kings had a an important settlement there. And that part where is called Haugesund today. (the old name was Hauge) were many graves(hauge) found. Harald Fairhairs haug is there. In danish and nowegian these graves- Highs is named Grav haug/høj. But there has to be a link here I mean both ways from the Orkneys to Scandinavia and later in the epoke of the Vikings back to the west.BTW Skara Brea sound like the perfect place to meditate and take som magics.
Thank you for this Frida. It's fascinating to think about the Orkney/Scandinavian link - what those sea voyages would have been like/their purpose - but we have been left with some clues as you say. These linguistic links are really interesting.
Skara Brae is wonderful,but if you really like to feel the magic, The Broch of Gurness is the place to be! I visited both when in Orkney and the Broch has FAR less tourists visiting and I tell you I didn't want to leave it was so powerfully strong.
@@meghanryan6707 i live for magic :) thank you for leaving an answer :) may love guide you always
@@TravelsThroughTime they were just doing it in their boats in their own small world with this pagan/ edda/ uppsala way of reaching God all these years ago
I thought I was actually going to see Skara Brea! I have never been there, but have seen it several times in various recordings! I also absolutely love this site, but I learned a lot more of its history in this video/podcast! Thank you so much to both of you & the wonderful conversation you shared! I will have to find his books! I have also subscribed! Erica❤
Thank you!
The story of the little girl in red makes me want to buy the book
I haven't checked in on Neil Oliver since he came out with his first book. I need to check out this latest book.
Everyone loves Neil. Me too!
Thankyou 😀
Very interesting! Thank you from the U.S.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Two thoughts from a potter - 1)Archeologists are like potters in that their sense of time covers eons. Archeologists hold a pot, or it's sherds, and feel a connection to someone from the past. Potters make a pot and feel a connection to someone from the future. And 2) I wonder if the etymology of the name Skara Brae only goes back to a description of a mound (the settlement already in ruins for a tremendously long time) because a new population supplanted the old suddenly and completely. There must have been no one around who knew the place by a name when the new people came in, and called it a mound. At any rate, thanks for this thought provoking video.
Wow! The little girl in the red dress. What a mind Mr Oliver is
Binge watching Neils' videos..has been a Revelation. The man is absolutely Infested with common sense...much to my consternation..i have yet to find Anything we disagree on. This would be Very Alarming to my haters....lol!..Of which there are many, seeing as i am very outspoken & live in the belly of the beast, the usa.
JJJACKANORY ...ITS SO HYPNOTIC TO LISTEN TO SIR NEIL OLIVER LOL
Stennes is the nearest village next to the ring of Brodgar …..my family heritage goes back to here…including Thorfin the Skullcrusher. Always fascinated by the importance of this place.
Neil's a real one for sure 👌👍
i remember when i worked as a cop on the island of Islay i asked why the church at Bowmore was circular in construction, i was informed that it was done so the Deil (Devil) couldn't hide in the corners.
Hugely inciteful - hung off every word. I'm a waif - slave working in the big city and don't have too much spare time to listen to this type of stuff - but I find it absorbing when I do.
Cheers Winston (from another slave working in the big city!). Glad you enjoyed it.
I know of someone who got their loved one's ashes cast into small concrete pebbles which they could carry around with them as grieving stones, then maybe leave in rivers or streams in special places…
Great idea
So good to hear you talk about Orkney. I am going there in October and I and very excited.
Me again agreeing with every word you said!
50:53 An earlier name for Stonehenge is the Welsh version : *Côr y cewri* (The choir of the giants)
The Secrets of Stanehedge th-cam.com/video/dTHxeRq8Df0/w-d-xo.html !!!
Wow Neil such a reflective soft heart
Neil’s surprised they had indoor, flushing toilets. It’s funny isn’t it how we think anyone not as up to date with tech isn’t as clever as we are? An archaeologist in a few thousand years might say, “they even had simple electric cars!” We’d say, “course we did! Did you think we couldn’t work out how to use available developments? We have the same brain capability as you and are just as clever.”
As a small child I imagined my mum was from the Stoneage. Such arrogance.
The idea about keeping dead bodies is loving. They would reek though unless dried or allowed to deflesh.
So...you would have to be comfortable with pretty radical theories about the past...but...
A book called 'Uriel's Machine'
Has a bit on Skara Brae and much much more. Highly Compelling, though not exactly mainstream😁
Wonderful.
Many thanks!
Yes the little girl in red in Schindlers List haunted me too...in a surreal and beautiful way.
I was going to mention her as i thought of her too! Haunting, seeing her in a red coat walking calmly amongst people in fear (in a black n white film) only later to see her laid on one of the carts.. 😢
Cheers, great stuff
Neil was great.
Hey Neil. next time youre at the look up and sideways not down, all will become clear!
every person killed in war is not just one person it effects any children etc that they would have had -
Just subbed btw, love your work 😍
I was not surprised that Orkney was of great importance 2500 BC because I was aware of the Scandinavians entering Northern England, Scotland; and Northern Ireland; and Wales long ago. AND sure enough, I doubke-checked and it said that they were in Orkney. NOW we may not think of the Scandinavians at that time as being highly advanced but they were conquerors; they had POWER; and they could wield their might and hence the fact that Orkney at that time so long ago was a site of POWER makes complete sense to me. WHAT do you think Mr. Oliver?
Oops. I was correct about the Scandinavian Invasion but I was off on the date and I couldn't find the info fast enuf enough on my phone before I wrote my comment!😞SO yes the Vikings invaded in 793 a8d and we're conquered in 1014 A.D. & so the people in that area in 2500 BC were not Scandinavian. In my quick research subsequent to my earlier comment I read that the Berbers were actually there or their DNA at least resides in those people from 5000 years ago. I would love if you could comment-- to the extent that people know-- on the people that populated that area 2500 Years B.C. Do you think that the Berbersers were there as I had read and therefore their peoples had some influence on the development of the Orkney area?
Disease... It seems that to go from the communal to isolation orientation would be logical ? Also , to care for , raise crops , and animals, for just your family unit also could be beneficial. What ever extra could be used to trade with for those items you lack or desire , with that core community? The ground my have degraded to the point that it no longer could produce as it had , the pastures they grazed , the same . So it may have been a communal decision to disband ?
Oh to have a time machine , just to answer SO MANY QUESTIONS!
I could listen to you for days , as far as going back to just witness and understand, if you'd like company for that trip , I CALL SHOTGUN ! ✌️🙉🙊🙈👍♥️
Could the ancients of Orkney hunted with sea eagles?
We are back to being surrounded by middens through wheelie bins!
Skara Brae? The Bard's Tale from 1985! :D A classic RPG on the C64/Amiga (or Atari), in the golden age of home computers.
Be a Wallace, Scott, or a bloody Bruce be a Scot, I was in Melrose 2 weeks ago Bruces heart a wee heart a small thing, surrounded by a closed Melrose abbey, that tomb on the isthmus means so much. I lived in Shetland for 2 years an the Brock of clickamin was a place I spent hours in. Mousa 2 days. Orkney 2 years. the everyday is our everyday a horn....
yeah, haunted by the highland clearences, one hierarchy, of a kind, taking over like filthy big cuckoos, this has happened since time began, and still happening now in some form or another
Not sure about keeping the corpse for any length of time in the house. as the build up of gases in the body mostly causes it to explode that is why cremation was/is used and mummification would seem a long and expensive process.
@ 20:20 in, what language were you speaking?
It was written WHEN?
The girl in red made my mind go immediately to Black Sabbath's "War Pigs."
I find it interesting that the disappearance of the people of Skara Brae coincides with the time of the Mabbul, the Deluge, recorded in the Bible as Noah's Flood, that happened in 2239 B.C. 1656 years from Adam.