Solar alignments and the ritual structures of neolithic Orkney

Abstract

The Neolithic period arrived around 4000 B.C. in Britain, along with pottery, domestication of animals and plants, and a burial mound tradition from Continental Europe. This tradition quickly spread throughout the British Isles. Within a few hundred years it had taken hold of Orkney, a group of islands off the northeast coast of Scotland. This landscape is dotted with both numerous burial cairns and a few stone circles from the Neolithic time period. Archaeologists have recently taken to studying the alignments of these structures to comment on the proposed rituals that were performed, especially those that were centered on the solstices. By comparing the orientations of these structures, one can determine whether they were related in religious purpose or if there was no connection whatsoever. I will be comparing these megaliths on both a typological and regional basis to determine these possible spatial relationships.