Jeffery NichollsThe excavation at #Barnhouse uncovered a #Neolithic #sweatlodge.
#Orkney #Brodgar #Stenness #prehistory #Britain
https://orkneyriddler.blogspot.com/2025/06/barnhouse-sweat-lodge.html
Orkney RiddlerStructure 8 at Barnhouse is the largest structure on the site, and it has ample evidence in it to identify it as a sweat Lodge. This is an extraordinary structure, especially when we consider that there really are no complex structures like this in the rest of Great Britain. Certainly not at this early date.
https://orkneyriddler.blogspot.com/2025/06/barnhouse-sweat-lodge.html
Barnhouse is the site of a small group of Neolithic dwellings close to the coast of Harray Loch, in Orkney. It is part of the Orkney World Heritage Site.
It is a lucky survival as it is an area that has not been ploughed by modern agriculture.
The evidence of habitation is physically very shallow, and for the most part, the buildings the structures represent were likely to be lightweight shelters.
The location of the settlement, on the shore of Harray Loch, and a stones throw from the Stones of Stenness suggests that this was a temporary campsite for the people who would build that henge monument.
Also, it is probable that such shallow dwellings were a feature of the shorelines of this, and other Orkney Lochs. There are many monuments in this area that would have required the Labour of large groups of people in Neolithic Orkney.
https://orkneyriddler.blogspot.com/2025/06/barnhouse.html
#Barnhouse #archaeology #neolithic #prehistoric #stonesofstenness #Brodgar
I could never quite believe that Neolithic people came to Orkney by boat.
As it is thought that they brought cattle and sheep with them, I could not envisage any animal, or any human, surviving a sea crossing of any British tidal waters in any prehistoric vessel.
Standard sources tie themselves in knots to persuade us that Neolithic people had boats that could carry beasts of both sexes that, once landed, would reproduce and help their tribe to survive on the unknown territory across the dangerous waters.
However, evidence has recently emerged that added another dimension to the problem. It was discovered that the Orkney Vole, a species that is unique to the archipelago, had been found by DNA analysis, to originate from northern Europe, and that it was not directly related to the common vole in Britain. (Thomas Cucchi et al)
This meant that the animal that arrived in Orkney did not pass through England, Wales or Scotland.
A vole arriving in Orkney, from Europe, without passing through Britain was a clue that all was not as it seems, and that in spite of the insistence of some that voles may have been carried as pets or food items, another possibility was probably more likely.
I therefore rather assumed that it must be necessary to question what places were passable around the coasts of Neolithic Britain, which areas were land, and which places were water, and when did land areas stop being land.
It is understood that much of the southern North Sea area was land at some point in the past. A piece of shallow sea called Dogger Bank has been named Doggerland as artefacts of 8000 years of age, and older, are frequently dredged up there. The rise in sea level which has occurred since the last ice age has clearly flooded lands here, but which lands, where, and when?
The obvious location, or so I thought, for a route to Orkney from Europe , that would be passable for small rodents, on foot, and avoiding England and Scotland, would be somewhere in the middle of the North Sea which, of course, is a bizarre idea.
Indeed, it was such a bizarre idea that I followed it, to see where it took me.
The result of my research can be seen in my blog:-
http://orkneyriddler.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-orkney-riddle.html
#Orkney #Neolithic #archaeology #prehistory #Brodgar #nessofbrodgar #Skara #skarabrae #barnhouse #knapofhowar #linksofnoltland #Noltland #cairns #Maeshowe
At Barnhouse, the largest structure on the site, Structure 8, has the hallmarks of being a communal structure, and contained evidence that it was in fact a sweat Lodge.
The clearest identification for this can be found in the entrance passage, in which can be found a fire hearth external to the building. The excavation plan indicates clearly that not only was there an external hearth, but that there was a lobby from which that fire could be supplied and serviced, and that there were two entrances into that lobby, from either side of the hearth.
Further evidence for the use of the structure as a sweat Lodge is found in the group of stones found in a pit very close to the entrance through from the entrance lobby. These I suggest were the heated rocks in the pit where they were placed to be sprinkled with water to raise the steam for the sweat Lodge ceremony.
A complete Grooved Ware pot set into the ground against the North East interior wall of the structure contained the water for the stones, and a small pottery vessel, found in the drain that runs out of the room would have been used to carry the water from the Grooved ware pot to the heated rocks.
The structure is pyramid shaped. Long timbers rest on an outer row of stones, and are supported on a king post in the centre of room within. Participants in the sweat lodge ceremony sat on a low wall around the room, and two operatives sat with their backs against the central king post. One of these people tended the external fire and supplied the hot stones into the pit where they were wetted, and the other used the pinch pot to label water from the Grooved Ware vessel to the Stones.
A wall surrounding structure 8 protected participants before and after the ceremony proper, but also protected the fire from the ever-present wind
Barnhouse was abandoned at around 3000BC, and all the structures there remained unmolested, to fall into disuse.
#Barnhouse #Neolithic #archaeology #sweatlodge #prehistory #Orkney
The clearest identification for this can be found in the entrance passage, in which can be found a fire hearth external to the building. The excavation plan indicates clearly that not only was there an external hearth, but that there was a lobby from which that fire could be supplied and serviced, and that there were two entrances into that lobby, from either side of the hearth.
Further evidence for the use of the structure as a sweat Lodge is found in the group of stones found in a pit very close to the entrance through from the entrance lobby. These I suggest were the heated rocks in the pit where they were placed to be sprinkled with water to raise the steam for the sweat Lodge ceremony.
A complete Grooved Ware pot set into the ground against the North East interior wall of the structure contained the water for the stones, and a small pottery vessel, found in the drain that runs out of the room would have been used to carry the water from the Grooved ware pot to the heated rocks.
The structure is pyramid shaped. Long timbers rest on an outer row of stones, and are supported on a king post in the centre of room within. Participants in the sweat lodge ceremony sat on a low wall around the room, and two operatives sat with their backs against the central king post. One of these people tended the external fire and supplied the hot stones into the pit where they were wetted, and the other used the pinch pot to label water from the Grooved Ware vessel to the Stones.
A wall surrounding structure 8 protected participants before and after the ceremony proper, but also protected the fire from the ever-present wind
Barnhouse was abandoned at around 3000BC, and all the structures there remained unmolested, to fall into disuse.
#Barnhouse #Neolithic #archaeology #sweatlodge #prehistory #Orkney
Barnhouse, the "Neolithic Village", in Orkney, is close to the Stones of Stenness, and the Maeshowe Cairn, and it sits on the shore of Harray Loch.
None of these Barnhouse buildings has the obvious sense of permanence that dwellings at Skara Brae, or the Knap of Howar have. They are short lived structures, often repaired, and rebuilt, and they date from different times throughout the duration of the settlement.
It seems unlikely that the walls of these structures at Barnhouse were ever much more than a few courses high, and a reasonable possibility is that the buildings they represent may have been Teepee- or dome-like timber-framed structures covered with animal skin, reed/thatch, or turves.
It is quite possible that sites like this are, or were, present along the coastline of the Harray Loch. Much recent agricultural activity has disturbed shallow archaeology like this, and the situation of the site , in a corner adjacent to ploughed fields, presents the possibility that the area has not been touched.
Anybody who has lived in Orkney through a normal Orkney winter will recognise that such light structures as these clearly represent, would not survive, or enable their inhabitants to survive, in an Orkney winter of lashing rain and ferocious gales.
#Barnhouse #Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory
None of these Barnhouse buildings has the obvious sense of permanence that dwellings at Skara Brae, or the Knap of Howar have. They are short lived structures, often repaired, and rebuilt, and they date from different times throughout the duration of the settlement.
It seems unlikely that the walls of these structures at Barnhouse were ever much more than a few courses high, and a reasonable possibility is that the buildings they represent may have been Teepee- or dome-like timber-framed structures covered with animal skin, reed/thatch, or turves.
It is quite possible that sites like this are, or were, present along the coastline of the Harray Loch. Much recent agricultural activity has disturbed shallow archaeology like this, and the situation of the site , in a corner adjacent to ploughed fields, presents the possibility that the area has not been touched.
Anybody who has lived in Orkney through a normal Orkney winter will recognise that such light structures as these clearly represent, would not survive, or enable their inhabitants to survive, in an Orkney winter of lashing rain and ferocious gales.
#Barnhouse #Orkney #archaeology #Neolithic #prehistory
Omega Recording StudiosBusy week this week! Today's session in Studio A is a Young Concert Band recording for the C.L. Barnhouse Company! #audioengineering #audioengineer #concertband #youngconcertband #Barnhouse #music #musictech #band #analog #microphone #instruments #rockvillemd
Busy week this week! Today's session in Studio A is a Young Concert Band recording for the C.L. Barnhouse Company! #audioengineering #audioengineer #concertband #youngconcertband #Barnhouse #music #musictech #band #analog #microphone #instruments #rockvillemd
Victor GibbsBarnhouse prehistoric settlement, Orkney Island, 2019. #orkneys #ruins #barnhouse #visitscotland #scotland
I AmAnita