Shift from Stone Age to Bronze Age on Orkney Islands
Archaeologists studying Bronze Age life on the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland have an interesting new theory provided by DNA found in bones dug from an ancient cemetery. The shift from Stone Age farming and social structures to those of the Bronze Age, particularly to a more hierarchical society, came about on the mainland more dramatically than it did on the islands. The question is, why?
Violent Mass Migration on Mainland
On the mainland (modern UK), the shift from Stone Age life to Bronze Age was precipitated by a mass migration from the steppes of Eurasia around 3000 BCE. Such a wave may be best characterized as an invasion with force involved. As such, the introduced changes came about quickly.
Gradual Change on Orkney Islands
On the islands, however, there’s no violent process of migration. Nonetheless, gradually, the archaeological record shows life on Orkney Islands reflected these mainland changes. So, were the islands just a sheltered backwater? Or can we identify a specific process by which change came to Orkney but slowly?
What Orkney Cemetery’s DNA Shows
Recent study of the DNA taken from the bones buried in the cemetery showed something intriguing. The men’s DNA reflected the same DNA as the earlier Stone Age ancestors. The male population of the island stayed put. New foreign men did not settle in the community.
However, for the women the picture revealed something startling. Their DNA matched the steppe invaders on the mainland. The women were marrying into the Orkney villages and bringing bits and pieces of the new cultural and agricultural changes and knowledge with them. No battles, just dowries and other legacies.
Advantages of Being out of the Mainstream?
It strikes me that being islands protected these agricultural villages from the disruptive drama going on around the mainland. Perhaps this stability made the Orkney men appealing marriage partners. On the positive side, they took advantage of the new strengths of the invaders without having to suffer invasions. The settlements of Orkney brought in, quite literally, new blood. In the process, they also transitioned into the Bronze Age.
By the way, archaeologists are fighting against sea water destruction as climate change exposes the villages and cemetery by washing away the covering dunes. They are trying to learn all they can while the evidence is still there for study. (The photo up top is of the Links of Noltland where they excavate one of these receding archaeological digs. photo on wiki by Otter)
Further Reading
If you’d like, read this discussion in more detail in Science, “Bones from ancient cemetery reveal surprises about Great Britain’s Bronze Age.”
You can read my post about the secondary funeral treatment of bones in one of Turkey’s most renowned archaeological sites, “Çatalhöyük’s skeletons, Painted and Celebrated.”