The demise of Skara Brae
"The abandonment of Skara Brae, like its discovery, has been attributed to a great storm, overwhelming the inhabitants with sand, so rapidly, that one fleeing woman was said to have left the beads of her necklace scattered in her wake."
A common misconception, and one that continues to be promoted today, is that
Skara Brae was abandoned overnight in the face of an apocalyptic disaster
- an cataclysm that caused the inhabitants to flee.
This dramatic idea was originally proposed by
Professor V. Gordon Childe, the archaeologist who excavated the village
in 1928, and like a Northern Pompeii, it immediately caught the
public's imagination.
However, in the light of modern techniques and
thinking, Childe's theory has, more or less, been discounted.
Instead, it is now thought that the fall of Skara Brae was brought about by two factors — coastal erosion and a change to Neolithic society.
From before Skara Brae, right up to the present day, the area around Skaill has always suffered from sand-blow events. We know that the inhabitants of Skara Brae put up with this sand-blow. But over time, it became harder. A combination of sand, encroaching sea and salt-water spray made working the land difficult and may have put an end to cereal production altogether.
If the land was not workable, there was no point in remaining — so it seems likely that a gradual drift to more productive land ensued.
Meanwhile, Neolithic society was also undergoing a change — a
change that brought about different ideas and a completely different
set of values and way of life.
From
the construction of the henge monuments at Brodgar
and Stenness and the
construction of Maeshowe, we
can perhaps see the emergence of an elite ruling body, who had the power
to control the labour of a number of people.
With this development, the need for all-enclosed
village communities disappeared — where once families depended on
their tight-knit, little village communities they now were part
of a larger, more widespread community, controlled by powerful tribal
or spiritual leaders.
Over time, families dispersed across the landscape,
settling once again in single individual dwellings. As more and
more of these younger people drifted from the villages they were
not replaced.
So Skara Brae's demise was certainly not overnight.
It seems more likely that those who remained
within the ancient village of Skara Brae gradually grew older and
died.
With their passing, their home and the home of
the ancestors for over six centuries finally fell silent — silent
save for the sound of the encroaching sand.
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