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Stone
Circle with Loch Harray to the left |
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| The
Stone Circle |
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| The
Ring of Brodgar is located about 1.2 kilometres to the northwest
of Stenness, at the opposite end of the isthmus that separates
the Lochs Harray and Stenness. It too is a henge—in this
case a Class II type with opposed |
| entrances
in the northwest and southeast. It is also much larger
than its neighbour, measuring 123 metres from ditch to
ditch, and is generally thought to have been built some
time later. Inside and close to the ditch was a perfect
circle of standing stones 103.7 metres in diameter. Unlike
Stenness, the site has scarcely been excavated—Colin
Renfrew put in three trenches in the early 1970’s.
Two of these sectioned the ditch, which was originally
about 10 metres across and as much as 3.4 metres deep.
Renfrew suggests that, using fire, stone hammers and antler
picks, it would have taken something like 80,000 man-hours
to hack out the ditch. Two radiocarbon dates from the
ditch fall in |
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middle of the first millennium BC—clearly much too late
for the construction of the monument. Typically the material
removed from the ditch would have been used to construct an
external bank but Renfrew found no evidence for this. Possibly
the material—and there must have been many tons of the
stuff—was carted away over the years. |
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| In
the summer of 2008, further exploratory trenches were put in
under the direction of Dr. Colin Richards of Manchester University
and Dr. Jane Downes of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology
and Orkney College. Their immediate aim was to gather suitable
material for new radiocarbon dates and environmental data. The
results of these are pending but a summary
of the seasons work and the web
diary of the excavators along with plenty of photographs
can be found at Orkneyjar.
One thing that they noticed is that there is some variation
in the width of the ditch, leading the excavator to believe
that they were dug in sections, possibly by different families
or villages. |
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would have been 60 stones in the circle originally, if the spacing
between them is consistent, of which 27 are standing today.
Many of these were lying on the ground a hundred years ago but
the site was taken into state care in 1906 and they were re-erected
in their original sockets. There were now 29 stones altogether
but these included two that were subsequently shattered by lightning.
The 2008 examination of the site included a geophysical survey
of roughly half of the circumference and found evidence for
19 stone sockets— a total of 36 altogether— suggesting
that the earlier estimate of 60 was too low. |
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stones enclose an area of about 0.85 hectares and, although
it has yet to be excavated, a geophysical survey of the interior
was unable to locate any features. However, this does not mean
that internal structures did not exist. It may simply reflect
the nature of the underlying bedrock and the relative lack of
sophistication of earlier survey techniques. Undoubtedly, the
current investigations will have much to add to the discussion. |
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A number of rough stone axes were found in the vicinity, along
with an EBA battle-axe that had been deliberately broken, presumably
as a sacrifice. Henges have always had economic associations
as well as religious. Groups needed to meet periodically to
exchange goods and to strengthen social links. Brodgar is nearly
six times the size of Stenness and could have held hundreds
rather than dozens of people. |
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| The
Comet Stone |
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The
Ring from the Comet Stone |
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The
Comet Stone and the stumps of its two companions |
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About
137 metres away to the east-southeast is a solitary monolith
1.75 metres high known as the Comet Stone. It stands at
the centre of a low, circular platform about 14 metres
in diameter, which also contains the stumps of another
two stones. Whether these stood independently or were
part of a dolmen-like structure is unclear. What is clear
is that there is a nice alignment from the centre of the
Ring of Brodgar, through the Comet Stone to the Stones
of Stenness and Barnhouse Stone beyond. |
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| Further
Reading |
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| Burl,
Aubrey |
(2000) |
Stone
Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany |
| Cunliffe,
Barry |
(2001) |
Facing
the Ocean: the Atlantic and its Peoples |
| Garnham,
Trevor |
(2004) |
Lines
on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky |
| Renfrew,
Colin |
(1979) |
Investigations
in Orkney, Society of Antiquaries of London, Research
Report No. 38 |
| Renfrew,
Colin (edit) |
(1985) |
The
Prehistory of Orkney |
| Richards,
Colin |
(2005) |
Dwelling
among the Monuments |
| Ritchie,
Anna |
(1996) |
Orkney |
| Ritchie,
J N G |
(1978) |
'The
Stones of Stenness, Orkney', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 107 |
| Scarre,
Chris |
(2007) |
The
Megalithic Monuments of Britain and Ireland |
| Wickham-Jones,
Caroline |
(2006) |
Between
the Wind and the Water, World Heritage Orkney |
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© Odyssey, Adventures in Archaeology.
2008
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