In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended

[ErroneousBosh]

I read George Mackay Brown in high school - Greenvoe and An Orkney Tapestry were the set texts in 2nd year and 3rd year respectively - and I was struck by the immense sense of depth of history from a living poet. It's difficult to explain what reading An Orkney Tapestry was like for the first time. It's like seeing Saturn's rings through a telescope with your own eyes for the first time except it's a telescope that's letting you see in crisp sharp focus all the way through 5000 years of time, instead of 750 million miles. From where I was standing aged 14 in a fairly small town on the Isle of Skye, 5000 years seemed a hell of a lot further.

I've been to Orkney several times, and it's an incredible place. The people who built Skara Brae had more advanced architecture than the Romans did (at least, they had better drains, and understood things like septic tanks and keeping drainage away from water supplies).

[sevensor]

> The people who built Skara Brae had more advanced architecture than the Romans did

But why did they put so many spinner traps and magic mouths in the perfectly rectilinear, monster-filled maze underneath the town?

In all seriousness, I had no idea until just now that Skara Brae was a real place, and not just a setting for tales sung by bards.

[rich_sasha]

Not true. They definitely didn't have deep fried Mars bars in the Stone Age.

[ErroneousBosh]

Deep fried Mars bars are an English thing.

[stevenwilkin]

https://archive.ph/Ta4ON

[WWWWH]

You know I wondered who those guys throwing spears at the busses were. Thought they’d just come doon the watter.

[ErroneousBosh]

Just Wishaw things.

I used to work with a guy whose parents were Pakistani but who had been born in Scotland, although he had quite a strong accent from living with his grandparents for several years. People used to ask him "So where are you really from?" quite often.

"I'm from Wishie", he'd say.

"No but where are you really from?"

"Well, dinna tell onyone," he'd say, dialling up the Lanarkshire accent, "but I'm really from Newmains, but if they hear I'm from there they'll think I'm a bam"

[meindnoch]

Stone age? Nah, more like IRN age.

[IAmBroom]

You sly dog. Take an upvote.

[usrnm]

Well, it wasn't that bad when I visited Scotland last time

[verisimi]

You obviously haven't been there recently.

[metalman]

I know a few people born in, or on the edge of the "neolithic", inuit from far up north, and idiginous peoples a bit further south, and more than a few scotts, including a clan of blacksmiths, but allas this space isn't quite suited to the raising of ghosts but as a fact, there is no invention or practice that is not bieng conducted nativly, astounding continuity, though essentialy invisible, as there are no signs, labels, certificates, or verifications, completly unplanned, though closed source in that most essential of ways

[baerrie]

This is the best way for ancient culture to survive.