Daily life in Skara Brae

A reconstruction of the entrance into the Skara Brae complex

There is no doubt that life in Skara Brae must have been that of a close, tightly-knit community.

Their houses were all built to one standard plan, with the furniture laid out a uniform manner - something which could have been symbolically important to them, perhaps linking past generations with the present.

In addition, these standardised house designs seem to indicate that no one person was more important than another. It hints that individual status was not measured in terms of worldly possessions. Some have suggested that perhaps, as in a commune, all the villagers were equal.

Unlike the nearby Barnhouse settlement, Skara Brae appears not to have been a settlement where one family, or individua,l held power over the others. Although there were probably leaders of sorts, these people would have "earned" their position, perhaps through experience. Their status, title or ranking, if any existed, would not necessarily pass on to any offspring.

Life in Skara Brae was probably quite comfortable by Neolithic standards. The villagers were settled farmers who, cultivating the land and raising livestock, were entirely self-sufficient. Bones found within the midden surrounding the houses shows that cattle and sheep formed the main part of the Skara Brae diet, with barley and wheat grown in the surrounding fields.

To compliment their farming produce, fish and shellfish were harvested in great quantities - and perhaps kept fresh within custom-built tanks within the houses.

The island's red deer and boar were also hunted for their meat and skins. Seal meat was consumed and, on the odd occasions when they found a beached whale, its meat would have provided a welcome feast.

In addition, they, like the generations of islanders that followed them, probably collected the eggs of sea-birds and possibly even the birds themselves.