Older Than Giza - Ancient Burial Chamber Revealed

[theshee]

Even 5000 years ago, Britons were an understated bunch. About 250 years before work began on Egypt's ostentatious Great Pyramid of Giza, the early settlers of Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, were building impressive stone chambers of their own - and burying them under mounds of dirt. Now, intensive laser scanning makes it possible to virtually peel away the mud, revealing one of those chambers in all its glory.


This is Maeshowe, a 3.8-metre-tall tomb chamber reached via a narrow passage 11 metres long. Maeshowe is one of several Neolithic monuments that comprise the Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was scanned by a team from the Glasgow School of Art's Digital Design Studio and the government agency Historic Scotland. The team is scanning 10 World Heritage Sites, five of which are in Scotland, for the Scottish Ten project. "We scanned Mount Rushmore [National Memorial] in the US in 2010," says Lyn Wilson of Historic Scotland.

All the sites are tourist attractions, which can make conserving them a challenge. The scans, accurate to within 6 millimetres, will form an invaluable record to monitor future wear and tear.

Not all damage made by visitors is unwelcome, though. A thousand years ago, Orkney was under Norwegian rule and Maeshowe was plundered. The robbers left behind the largest collection of runes known outside Scandinavia, carved into the stone. These, too, have been laser-scanned in sub-millimetre detail. That's pretty impressive for 1000-year-old graffiti
www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/04/ancient-burial-chamber-reveale.html

[Wes Gear]

Nice post Shee. I hope we get to see more results of this laser scanning work.

[brillbilly]

Wow shee,thats got my tastebuds going
awesome scan..i crave more

The Orkneys is quite a place and is throwing up many suprises


Neolithic 'temple' revealed at site on Orkney

Ongoing geophysics project continues to reveal secrets of the Ness of Brodgar




The Stone Age equivalent of a cathedral has been unearthed in Orkney, the largest structure of its kind found in Britain. It is an area that is at the heart of Orkney's World Heritage Site which boasts extraordinary archaeological richness.

It is an area that is at the heart of Orkney's World Heritage Site which boasts extraordinary archaeological richness. The building has been found between two of of the most famous standing stones sites in the world, the Ring O' Brodgar and the Standing Stones O' Stenness.

But the archaeologists working on the site said that this latest find was unprecedented, and that the vast structure is as awe-inspiring today as it would have been in theStone Age.

At 65ft long, and similarly wide, it would have dominated the landscape, dwarfing the Ring O' Brodgar (the 27 standing stones range from 7ft to over 15ft) and even the Stenness Stones (the four standing rise to 19ft).

"In effect it is a Neolithic cathedral for the whole of the north of Scotland," said Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, who is leading the dig at the Ness of Brodgar.

The shape and size of the building are clearly visible today, with the walls still standing to a height of more than 3ft.

Far taller when built, they are 16ft thick and surround a cross-shaped inner sanctum where the 40-strong excavation team have found examples of art and furniture created from stone.

The building was surrounded by a paved outer passage. Archaeologists say this could have formed a labyrinth that would have led people through darkness to the chamber at the heart of the building.

The team has also discovered that a standing stone split by a hole shaped like an hourglass was incorporated into the structure, something never seen before in buildings from the period.

"A building of this scale and complexity was here to amaze - to create a sense of awe in the people who saw this place," said Mr Card.

"The perfection of the stone work is beautiful to look at. This is architecture on a monumental scale and the result is the largest structure of its kind anywhere in the north of Britain."

The building may have served as some kind of temple, perhaps playing an important role on the journey from life to death in the beliefs of the people of the time.

"Today it is still so impressive and when you look down on it from above it is almost jaw dropping," he added. "It is a real privilege to work here and we feel that this was a very special place when built four-and-a-half to five thousand years ago."

Dr Colin Richards, reader in archaeology at Manchester University and a leading expert on the period, said the building would have stood at the heart of Neolithic Orkney.

"A structure of this nature would have been renowned right across the north of Scotland, and is unprecedented anywhere in Britain," he added.

If ya want to watch what they found then look below!

Neil Oliver explores a newly-discovered 5,000-year-old temple on Orkney. Built 500 years before the iconic monument of Stonehenge, the temple is opening new windows onto the beliefs of Neolithic people, turning the map of ancient Britain upside down.

This is a vast site of undisturbed archaeology, set within one of the most important ancient landscapes in the world. Already the site is revealing a series of incredible finds including the first ever discovery of Neolithic painted wall decorations, and even the pigments and paint pots used by Stone Age artists.

All the new archaeological evidence, and the wonders of special effects, has now been used to create a 3-D world of the entire temple, allowing Neil to walk inside in a bid to understand just how it might have been used

;)I watched this last night,some very stunning discoveries are made and much speculation,but i loved what they found
watch it here on BBCi player www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01971gm/A_History_of_Ancient_Britain_A_History_of_Ancient_Britain_Special_Orkneys_Stone_Age_Temple/

or heres a great 3D camera overhead view of just part of the site
www.kenstuart.com/fp/Aerial.html