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Orkney and Alaska

4 August 2013
Archaeology

At www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/08/2013/neolithic-engraved-sto… … since 2010 some 80 decorated pieces of stone have been unearthed, and altogether some 450 inscribed pieces. Now, a discovery in Structure 10 (interpreted as some kind of ritual building) at the base of internal corner buttresses, has been found. It consists of a chevron design and small cupmarks as well as a main design of intersecting triangles (which are similar to inscribed stones founds at Skara Brae, Maeshowe, and at the bend of the Boyne in Ireland, as well as on Grooved Ware pottery (some interesting images at the link).

At www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/02/alaska-village- … a village dating back 200 years or so has been unearthed in NW Alaska (where the temperatures are very low), in the 1700s and early 1800s (just before early European explorers). Houses were connected by tunnels – dwellings dug some four feet into the ground, framed by spruce with soil and earth walls. They remind me of some native houses I visited on holiday in Canada – but without the tunnels. These were presumably to avoid the cold environment in the open air.

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