Essential Jewellery
Cute jewellery has been made in Orkney for decades by Ola Gorie using the fantastic art of ancient civilisations which were once vibrant in Orkney. These have become essential jewellery pieces and are set to be even more desirable as the craze for our Neolithic heritage grows. Cute jewellery is playing a small part in spreading the word of Orkney’s fame.
Television presenter Neil Oliver fanned the flames in the New Year when he broadcast a feature about the wonderful Neolithic monuments being uncovered at the Ness of Brodgar. They are just a stone’s throw from tomb of Maeshowe whose artwork features on our cute jewellery and that of our other essential jewellery collection Skara Brae.
But there is even more ancient stone buildings waiting to be discovered under the sea. The recent discovery of a possible henge monument below the surface of a loch a few hundred metres from the Neolithic standing stones at the Ring of Brodgar is just the tip of the iceberg in the story of Orkney’s ancient monuments, archaeologists believe.
The sea bed is the final frontier for archaeological exploration, says archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones, and must be stripped away through geophysical and other surveys to get the whole story.
Nobody has really done this type of work before, particularly looking for submerged stone-built monuments around the UK. And people have tended to write off places like Orkney because we are known for high energy waters and renewables. So a lot of the work underwater for submerged structures and archaeology has tended to happen in much calmer areas like the Baltic.
The ring shaped feature lying below the calm waters of the Loch of Stenness in the Heart of the Neolithic Orkney World Heritage site has similar dimensions to the famous Ring of Brodgar at 90 metres in diameter. It appears to be a henge monument, an area enclosed by a bank and ditch. But further investigation is needed to confirm it is not a natural feature.
And sensing and seismic surveys – similar to those carried out on land and known to the public through Time Team – marine geophysics – have revealed a cluster of potentially interesting features right next to the Ness of Brodgar site where a massive complex of monumental structures is being excavated every summer. More sonar and seismic surveys need to be done to determine how much more of Neolithic Orkney lies beneath the water. Core samples help carbon date the former environmental changes.
In Neolithic times 5000 years ago, sea levels were 3-4 metres below that of the present day. The archipelago of Orkney’s 70 or so isles was one big island much earlier in the Mesolithic period 7,500 years ago when people first arrived there with plenty of bays for fishing. Current sea levels were reached in around 2000BC.
More Cute Jewellery
The problem is to interpret what has been found – the diver sees a pile of old stones covered in seaweed. It’s difficult enough doing an archaeological survey on land, let alone in our waters with poor visibility.
The Rising Tide project is collaboration between the universities of St Andrews, Wales, Dundee, Bangor and Aberdeen and uses a multi-disciplinary approach to examine former sea-level change and its impact on the prehistoric human population of Orkney. It is one of the first teams to work in such a high energy environment and to be employing such a mixed suite of techniques. They are coming at it through archaeology, natural science, oral history, geography, gadgets on boat and divers.
The sea bed is the last unexplored final frontier on Earth in every way – in terms of fishing, geology and in terms of human remains, say the archaeologists.
So, what is really exciting and unusual for the UK, in Orkney, is that we not only have spectacular Neolithic remains on land but also potentially underwater. People are certainly getting very excited about the latest finds and visitor numbers this summer are expected to soar. Orkney businesses, including our own cute jewellery designers, are gearing up for a busy season. The VisitOrkney tourist office is reporting massive interest and inquiries.
If more carved stones are found they may well end up being part of essential jewellery collections like the Neolithic inspired pieces which have remained popular for decades as must-have cute jewellery.
My summer holiday destination will be the warm south coast of England, there’s absolutely nothing about a bleak cold place like Orkney that appeals to me, regardless of their ‘interesting’ bits of rock and so forth.
I have a piece of Ola Gorie jewellery I bought in their shop in Kirkwall. It’s called Finnish Beast and is very distinctive, many people have remarked on it. I wish I could have afforded the gold version, but the silver is nice too.
I suppose that the Orkneys was a natural stepping stone for Vikings, but I am surprised they stayed long enough to leave such noteworthy remains.
Tony Robinson was hilarious as Baldrick in Blackadder – but him presenting Time Team … doesn’t work for me.
I suppose Tony Robinson and his Time Team colleagues have largely been responsible for the huge increase in public interest in archeological digs and stuff. Well done!