Mesolithic and Neolithic Scotland
A number of cairns and burial sites have been excavated and the findings suggest that groups may have had totems. For example, twenty-four dog skulls were excavated at one site (Cuween Hill, Orkney) while sea eagles were found at another (Isbister, Orkney)
Some funerary sites seem to have been reserved for certain individuals while others appear to have been used by the whole community. At Ibister, the remains appear to have been left out on mortuary platforms before internment while at others the bodies may have been subjected to some form of cremation. Cairns have been found to contain ashes, burnt and unburnt bones and pottery shards.
These sites indicate that the Neolithic people were physically smaller than modern humans with men being on average 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) tall and women being 5 feet 3½inches (1.6 metres) tall but both genders were stocky and very muscular. In the Orkneys, at least, few seem to have lived beyond 25 years old and 47% of the exhumed skeletons showed evidence of osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease which no doubt contributed to the early demise of the majority.
Neolithic farmers probably lived in hamlets or individual farmsteads. From about 3000BC stone circles and henges (circular areas of variable size, defined by a bank and a ditch, with one or two entrances) were constructed throughout the landscape. The amount of work needed to produce these monoliths, with flint and bone tools (there is an estimate of 20,000 hours of labour for the henge at Stenness alone), suggests that a hierarchy of power and organisation must have evolved.
Henges are found all over Britain, the most famous being Stonehenge. Although many have not yet been excavated, henges often seem to be associated with timber or stone constructions and burial pits containing grooved ware pottery.
Many of these sites appear to have been in use for over 1500 years, with additions and alterations being made. These often took the form of new timber palisades being erected while the existing timber was replaced with stone. The timber used was up to one metre in diameter and the large stones were often shaped and transported many miles. Take a moment to think about the effort that was required with Neolithic tools and before the invention of the wheel!
It is generally accepted that the purpose of the stone circles and henges was ceremonial, possibly involving the movements of the sun and
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