Skara Brae - The Furniture

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It is also the reason the village is so well-preserved.</p> <p class="bodytext">So, without wood to work with, each house was equipped with an extensive assortment of stone furniture. This ranged from cupboards, dressers and beds to shelves and limpet tanks.</p> <p class="bodytext">Of all the fixtures in Skara Brae, it would appear that the stone dressers were regarded as the most important. The dresser faces the entrance of each house and is, therefore, the first item seen when entering (see photograph, above right).</p> <p class="bodytext"><img src="/web/20100819093537im_/http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/bed.jpg" alt="Picture: Sigurd Towrie" width="330" height="248" border="1" class="picright"/>Although it is perfectly possible that the dresser may have been nothing more than a simple storage unit, it seems more likely that it had an equally important symbolic purpose. </p> <p class="bodytext">Were the objects displayed on the dresser somehow indicative of the status of the house's occupants? The significance of the position of the dresser is further dealt with on the page detailing the <a href="layout.htm">layout of the village</a>.</p> <p class="bodytext">At the centre of every house, perhaps the most important area, was the hearth, which is dealt with <a href="hearth.htm">here</a>.</p> <p class="bodytext">Flanking the hearth are the beds. These were stone-built “boxes” that jut out into the middle of the room. The right-hand bed is always larger that the left-hand bed, which led to the theory that the each house had a specific male and female divide – i.e. the right was the male section, the left female.</p></td>  <td width="150" valign="top" class="sidebar"> <table width="150" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#CCCC99"> <tr align="center" valign="bottom"> <td height="20" valign="middle" bgcolor="#666633" class="tiny"><b><font color="ffff99" size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Section Contents </font></b></td> </tr> <tr align="center" valign="bottom"> <td height="1" bgcolor="#000000" class="tiny"><img src="/web/20100819093537im_/http://www.orkneyjar.com/blank.gif" width="1" height="1"/></td> </tr> </table> <table width="150" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#CCCC99"> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#F8F0C0"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99"><a href="index.html" class="menu">The Discovery of Skara Brae</a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99"><a href="skarab1.htm" class="menu">The Buildings</a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99" align="center"><a href="house7.htm" class="menu">House Seven</a> </td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99" align="center"><a href="house8.htm" class="menu">House Eight</a> </td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99" align="center"><a href="layout.htm" class="menu">The Layout of the Village</a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#FFFFCC" align="center"><a href="furniture.htm" class="menu">The Furniture </a> </td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99" align="center"><a href="hearth.htm" class="menu">The Central Hearth </a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99" align="center"><a href="passages.htm" class="menu">The Passages </a> </td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99"><a href="skarab2.htm" class="menu">Life in Skara Brae?</a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td bgcolor="#CCCC99"><a href="religion.htm" class="menu">Religion and Ritual</a></td> </tr> <tr valign="middle" align="center" bgcolor="#EADDCC"> <td class="sidebar" bgcolor="#CCCC99"><a href="abandon.htm" class="menu">Was it abandoned?</a></td> </tr> </table> <hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/> The main source of wood available to the Neolithic inhabitants of Orkney would have been driftwood - items washed up on the islands' many shores. As such it was probably considered too valuable to burn. <hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/> Flagstone remained a vital building material to Orkney's crofters until the end of the 19th century. <hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/> <div align="center"><font color="#800000" size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font> <a href="javascript:history.back()"><img src="/web/20100819093537im_/http://www.orkneyjar.com/back.gif" width="60" height="28" alt="Back a page" border="0"/></a> </div></td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top" width="8"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td height="20" bgcolor="#cccc99"> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td height="25" align="right" valign="middle"><font color="WHITE" size="1"><script>writeCopyright();</script></font> </td> <td></td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>

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Skara Brae - The Furniture