Stone domestic furniture of Skara Brae
Mobiliario doméstico de piedra de Skara Brae
- Date
- c. 3100 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Neolithic inhabitants of Orkney
- Field
- Tools
What it is
The houses at Skara Brae preserve slab beds, dressers and shelves, a central hearth and watertight tanks set into the floor. It is the most complete set of domestic furniture from the European Neolithic.
Timber was scarce in Orkney, so local stone was used, which is why the furniture survives; elsewhere it would have been made of perishable wood.
What it led to
- a fixed arrangement of domestic space around the hearth
- storage and display of objects on stone dressers
- a model of village housing with drains and toilets