13. Ancestors were so crucial to the people of Skara Brae, that the villagers gave them a house of their own.
The small Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, located just off mainland Scotland on the Orkney Islands is famous for its perfect preservation and the sudden disappearance of its residents. The village is also notable because its residents constructed it within the midden heap of a former settlement. This midden heap snugly sheltered the living who resided in six small houses. Skara Brae’s seventh and oldest house, however, had a very different purpose.
On the face of it, House 7 is no different to the other houses of Skara Brae. It possessed the same, surprisingly modern looking stone dressers and beds and like the other houses, had a bolt which could be drawn to secure the inside. However, unlike in Skara Brae’s other homes, number 7’s bar was on the outside. The peculiarity of House 7 did not end there. For it was built slightly apart from the other houses, on virgin-ground outside the midden mound. Its separateness was also subtly emphasised by the fact that it was connected to the rest of the village by a single side passage.
Some archaeologists believe the outside bolt and peripheral location made House 7 a kind of Neolithic jail. However, a macabre find under the floor suggests a more sacred function, for excavators discovered the remains of two women carefully buried in stone-lined graves under the House 7’s right-hand bed and wall. The burials predated the construction of the dwelling, suggesting Skara Brae’s occupants built House 7 deliberately over the graves. House 7’s prearranged location over the remains of previous settlers could have been part of a foundation ritual with the first house of the new village dedicated as a ‘home’ for the ancestors. Alternatively, it may have been a place of initiation. Either way, it was clear the resident’s of Skara Brae felt they had to keep these particular ancestors close.