Scord of Brouster
Encyclopedia
The Scord of Brouster is one of the earliest Neolithic
farm sites in Shetland, Scotland
. It has been dated to 2220 BC with a time window of 80 years on either side. It comprises three houses, several fields surrounded by walls, and a cairn
. A sign by the Scord of Brouster states that the climate of Shetland became wetter towards 1500 BC, and that peat
forming near the fields eventually forced the farmers to permanently abandon the site.
were found at the Scord of Brouster. 5688 stone artifacts were found in house one, 3772 stone artifacts were found in house two, and only 227 stone artifacts were found in house three. Of the 227 items found in house three, 225 are merely quartz flakes and chips. These pieces were found in what appears to be three phases: prior to the construction of the buildings, during active use, and during abandonment.
The second house contained only about three-fourths the number of tool artifacts that the first house did. However, they had nearly identical percentages of types of tools found. For example, house one contained 91 scrapers compared to the 69 found in house two, but that corresponds to 75% of the artefacts found in house one and 77% of the artefacts found in house two.
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
farm sites in Shetland, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It has been dated to 2220 BC with a time window of 80 years on either side. It comprises three houses, several fields surrounded by walls, and a cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
. A sign by the Scord of Brouster states that the climate of Shetland became wetter towards 1500 BC, and that peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
forming near the fields eventually forced the farmers to permanently abandon the site.
Site
The Scord of Brouster has three oval-shaped houses. The first house is oriented so that its long axis is parallel to the northwest-southeast axis, and it is around 43 feet (13.1 m) long and 34 feet (10.4 m) wide. It has an entrance at its southeastern end and six recesses. The second house is around 35 feet (10.7 m) long and 27 feet (8.2 m) wide. It is more kidney-shaped than the first house, and it has only two recesses rather than six, of which one, 2 metres (6.6 ft) long, may be a sleeping area. Like the second house, the third house is around 35 feet (10.7 m) long and 27 feet (8.2 m) wide.Artifacts
In all, nearly ten thousand pieces of quartzQuartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
were found at the Scord of Brouster. 5688 stone artifacts were found in house one, 3772 stone artifacts were found in house two, and only 227 stone artifacts were found in house three. Of the 227 items found in house three, 225 are merely quartz flakes and chips. These pieces were found in what appears to be three phases: prior to the construction of the buildings, during active use, and during abandonment.
House one
Before this house was built, most of the artifacts were scattered across the southern portion of the building's area. After the construction of the house, the center of the building had far fewer quartz artifacts. Instead, the artifacts were concentrated in places inside the house beside the walls. In the final phase, most stone pieces were found by the walls of the house.House two
Both prior to construction and during its use, the artifacts were mostly concentrated on the western side and near the central fireplace. The eastern side had very few artefacts, and a recess in the northeast corner had even fewer, which led the archaeologists to believe that it may have been a sleeping area. After abandonment, the artefacts were scattered relatively evenly across the entire area.The second house contained only about three-fourths the number of tool artifacts that the first house did. However, they had nearly identical percentages of types of tools found. For example, house one contained 91 scrapers compared to the 69 found in house two, but that corresponds to 75% of the artefacts found in house one and 77% of the artefacts found in house two.