'A Neolithic feat of engineering': Orkney dig reveals ruins of tomb | Hacker News Reader

'A Neolithic feat of engineering': Orkney dig reveals ruins of tomb

theguardian.com

37 pointsisaacfrond13 comments

Orkney is well worth a visit, the archeological sites are truly amazing and when you're done with that you can visit Highland Park and sip some world class scotch.

Some stunning scenery too; I was there in April. Can be very very cold/windy though; pack accordingly.

I agree, I’m very fond of Orkney. I’ve been several times on short breaks. Skara Brae is both smaller than you think it should be (studied it in primary school) and more impressive (over 5000 years old). A very peaceful place with great archeology, landscapes and seabirds (got really close to puffins on the last trip) but it is always windy.

I always find it enormously frustrating when stories like this only include one picture, like this one does. Pictures would really help in understanding what the overall shape looks like, and surely they exist.

Either way, while frustratedly seeing if I could find more (and only turning up the same picture in cribbed news articles on other sites) I found the 3D modelling profile of the lead researcher, with some 3D models of archaeological sites in Orkney, as well as others, and thought other readers here might be interested: https://sketchfab.com/hugoandersonwhymark

I am very interested! Thank you for finding those.

It’s almost like they don’t want you to know what it looks like.

It’s more like photos cost more money than the ads bring in.

Thanks, very cool. As kids back in the 1950s my sister and I could wander around inside Skara Brae. I've been back several times since, but not actually in the rooms again of course, so those 3D models are a wonderful revisit.

Edit to add that it's a little disturbing to find I can go underground lol.

This is an exciting discovery but by way of comparison, the oldest egyptian pyramids are roughly the same age, Longshan culture didn't have big monuments but high tech like plows ceramics, etc.

(My comment from this article a few days ago)

Slightly tangential, but I've always wanted to see the Orkneys and their archaeology since I read Kim Stanley Robinson's "A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations":

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/history.htm

interested to know if there are editorial guidelines as to when it's okay to start calling ancestors remains 'icing on the cake'...

That was fairly damn insensitive and horrible. These people were just as complicated as we are.

Some dwellings in Orkney dating back to around 5000 BC also included indoor plumbing. Kind of cool.

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