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Scotland:A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

I stood on a grassy slope in Scotland and gazed down at Skara Brae, the village occupied by prehistoric people for six hundred years before the Romans occupied the British Isles. Included in a tour of Scotland was a visit to the Orkney Islands, where this ancient village is located. In order to travel to Kirkwell and to Skara Brae, we needed to take the ferry from John O'Groats, the most northern tip of Scotland. This village, named after Dutchman, Jan de Groot, who built the first house and ran the first ferry, was a name I was familiar with. It always seemed to pop up in crossword puzzles.

I wanted my picture taken there. On a beautiful sunny August day, with the ocean behind me, was a white post with black lettering, and a sign which listed the distance from that spot to my hometown in California. The sign read: "John O'Groats; Lands End 874 - Pentland Ferries 6; San Pedro 6248 - Orkney & Shetland Isles; 27th August 1988 " It was gratifying tome to know that the place which appeared soften in my puzzles actually did exist.

The Pentland Firth, between the mainland and the Orkney Islands, is only a forty-five minute ride, but the ferry leaves the dock only when the sea is calm, and that doesn't often happen. Twice a day the tide surges through the Firth from the Atlantic to the North Sea and back again, creating severe currents. We were lucky. This day the gods had smiled on us and we had a safe journey to Kirkwell.

We drove through the town of Kirkwell on our way to Skara Brae and the prehistoric village we had come to see. The name Skara Brae is possibly derived from the Gaelic words for cormorant sgarbh, and brae meaning hill. Thus, Skara Brae is “the hill of the cormorant.” On our way there, the local tour guide gave us a little background about what we were soon going to see. She told us Skara Brae had been buried for centuries until, in 1850, a powerful storm and high tides stripped grass and sand away from an immense rounded dune of refuse. This midden, which covered the village, had created a protective cocoon. Skara Brae, built before the Pyramids, Stonehenge, or the Great Wall of China, once contained six houses, each connected by stone passageways. Through radiocarbon dating, it has been determined that occupation of the site began just before 3100 BC, and ended around 2500 BC.

I gazed down at the remains of this village and I could almost see and hear the family that might have lived here so many years ago. Howell, Nooma, come here quickly. I need you to put the bracken and heather back onto your beds, and hang up the animal hide canopy again. Sometimes you children play too rough and it falls down. Then pick up your playthings and put them in the cupboard above your bed. It's a good thing they are made of bone the way you two throw them around. Your father should be home soon. He and Tep have been fishing together and he hoped they'd catch some crab for our evening meal. Nooma, when you are through you can help me get the fire ready.”

The Neolithic family at Skara Braee, part of a highly developed people, enjoyed a diet of cattle and sheep as their staple food, augmented with fish, shellfish, pig, venison, birds and their eggs. Evidence shows these people raised barley and sat around an open fire roasting hazelnuts. Could this have been the forerunner of future campers roasting marshmallows around their bonfire, I wondered?

“Hwell, Nooma, now you have finished your meal, let's all sit by the open fire for awhile and roast some nuts before you go to sleep. It's going to be cold tonight, so be sure you cover yourselves well with your sheepskin. Tomorrow you can both help me make some more pottery, and Hwell, you can put red ochre on them to make them look nice. Noona, we need to finish the beads we are making. I know we have plenty of fish bones for them. I've kept them in a cupboard so they would stay dry. The beads will be beautiful when we are done. I'll let you wear them sometime, and you can show them to your friend. Perhaps we'll let her help make the new pin I want. Your father brought me some walrus ivory and it will make a lovely one. Now, you two, hurry along and get into bed."

As I turned to leave I smiled and silently said goodbye to my fancied family.

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