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The front of the structures
The front of the structures

At Knap of Howar on the Orkney island of Papa Westray, a Neolithic farmstead has been wonderfully well preserved, and is claimed to be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe, with radiocarbon dating showing that it was occupied from 3500 BC to 3100 BC, earlier than the very similar houses in the settlement at Skara Brae. Orkney (also known as the Orkney Islands or incorrectly the Orkneys) is an Archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles (16 km north Papa Westray also known as Papay, is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, with a population of 65 at the time of the 2001 Census now increased to The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos ||-||-||-| Skara Brae (ˈskɑrə ˈbreɪ is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of mainland Orkney

The farmstead consists of two adjacent rounded rectangular thick walled buildings with very low doorways facing to sea, the larger and older linked by a low passageway to the other which has been interpreted as a workshop or a second house. This article is about the body of water For other uses see SEA and Seas. They were constructed on an earlier midden, and surrounded by midden material which has protected them. A midden, also known as a kitchen midden, or a shell heap, is a dump for domestic waste. There are no windows, and they were presumably lit by a hole in the roof to let out smoke. They stand close to the shore, but when originally built lay inland. The shore shows how the local stone splits into thin slabs, giving a ready source of construction material. In Geology, rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of Minerals and/or Mineraloids The Earth's outer solid layer the ‘ Lithosphere

Looking back through the low entrance doorway into the main house, a visitor's rucksack gives an idea of scale.
Looking back through the low entrance doorway into the main house, a visitor's rucksack gives an idea of scale.
The main house now looks out over the sea.
The main house now looks out over the sea.

The walls still stand to an eaves height of 1. An eave is the edge of a Roof. Eaves usually project beyond the side of the building generally to provide weather protection 6m, and the stone furniture is intact giving a vivid impression of life in the house. Fireplaces, partition screens, beds and storage shelves are almost intact, and post holes were found indicating the roof structure.

Evidence from the middens shows that the inhabitants were keeping cattle, sheep and pigs, cultivating barley and wheat and gathering shellfish as well as fishing for species which have to be line caught using boats. Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated Ungulates a member of the Subfamily Bovinae of the family Pigs, also called hogs or' swine', are Ungulates which have been domesticated as sources of food leather and similar products since ancient times Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Shellfish is a Culinary and Fisheries term for those aquatic Invertebrate animals that are used as Food: various species of molluscs For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish.

Finds of finely made and decorated Unstan ware pottery link the inhabitants to chambered cairn tombs nearby and to sites far afield including Balbridie and Eilean Domhnuill. Unstan ware is the name used by Archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th millennium BC A chambered cairn is a burial monument usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a Cairn of stones inside which a sizeable (usually stone chamber Balbridie is the site of a Neolithic timber-house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated in the south Deeside near the B9077 road. Armit identifies the islet of Eilean Dòmhnuill, Loch Olabhat on North Uist, Scotland as what may be the earliest Crannog.

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Archaeology and Geology continue to reveal the secrets of prehistoric Scotland, uncovering a complex and dramatic past before the Romans brought Scotland The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude
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