This is a copy and paste blog, If it were a blog, I would have re-blogged, it came from another website, I had to share this, bit of a WOW moment. My Dad moved to these Islands about 6 Month ago, wonderful place. The Orkney Islands , credit goes to jrmcleod from here http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread943308/pg1 The Time-stamp is the biggest thing here. If true, it blows many things out the water
On a little Island on the boundry between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea lies an archeological excavation that is re-writing british archeological history. The small set of islands called the Orkney Islands holds many secrets including Scarra Brae, but this recent discovery at the Ness of Brogdar, pre-dates even the pyramids of anchient Egypt.
It is believed that it has been occupied since 3500BC, that’s 5000 years ago. But where is the significance? Well the significance is that the people that built the Ness of Brogdar, also sent their knowledge south to the builders of Stonehenge. They built a settlement so advanced that it was the most complex of its kind anywhere else that has so far been discovered in Europe.
There are so many questions about why and how…
The land that has been surveyed and excavated so far has brought so many surprises that what they have discovered utterly eclipses anything else discovered in all of Europe. But why would people settle and build such amazing things on the Islands of Orkney? Why would they then take this advanced knowledge south to England?
The temple complex of the Ness of Brodgar, and its size, complexity and sophistication have left archaeologists desperately struggling to find superlatives to describe the wonders they found there. “We have discovered a Neolithic temple complex that is without parallel in western Europe. Yet for decades we thought it was just a hill made of glacial moraine,” says discoverer Nick Card of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology. “In fact the place is entirely manmade, although it covers more than six acres of land.
Once protected by two giant walls, each more than 100m long and 4m high, the complex at Ness contained more than a dozen large temples – one measured almost 25m square – that were linked to outhouses and kitchens by carefully constructed stone pavements. The bones of sacrificed cattle, elegantly made pottery and pieces of painted ceramics lie scattered round the site. The exact purpose of the complex is a mystery, though it is clearly ancient. Some parts were constructed more than 5,000 years ago.
What is clear is that the cultural energy of the few thousand farming folk of Orkney dwarfed those of other civilisations at that time. In size and sophistication, the Ness of Brodgar is comparable with Stonehenge or the wonders of ancient Egypt. Yet the temple complex predates them all. The fact that this great stately edifice was constructed on Orkney, an island that has become a byword for remoteness, makes the site’s discovery all the more remarkable. For many archaeologists, its discovery has revolutionised our understanding of ancient Britain.
We need to turn the map of Britain upside down when we consider the Neolithic and shrug off our south-centric attitudes,” says Card, now Brodgar’s director of excavations. “London may be the cultural hub of Britain today, but 5,000 years ago, Orkney was the centre for innovation for the British isles. Ideas spread from this place. The first grooved pottery, which is so distinctive of the era, was made here, for example, and the first henges – stone rings with ditches round them – were erected on Orkney. Then the ideas spread to the rest of the Neolithic Britain. This was the font for new thinking at the time.
What we must do from this point on when looking at the anchient history of the UK and indeed Europe is point our eyes towards the cold climates of the North, not the warm of the south. These farmers and peasants of the time built something so magnificant that had it been seen in its day would have been so unbelievable to the eye.Who were they worshipping? Who provided the knowledge on building walls 100m long, 4 meters high and 4 meters thick with such precision?
So not only do we have sophisticated buildings but we have painted buildings and clay pots originating here.
I will leave you with more questions than answers…maybe i have piqued your interest….
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ness_of_Brodgar
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/06/orkney-temple-centre-ancient-britain
prayingforoneday 