1996/10/01 by Colin Richards · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Archaeology #Geography #History #Ancient history
paper · doi:10.1080/00438243.1996.9980340
openalex publication_date 1996/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
In Britain and Ireland there is a tendency for late Neolithic monuments to be clustered in groups and located at similar topographic positions. In this paper a group of spectacular monuments, including henges, passage graves and standing stones, in Orkney is examined. It is shown how the development of the monuments occurs and how they draw on the visual imagery of the natural world in their architectural representation. As each monument embodies a different role and purpose so its architecture and appearance vary. Through a sequence of construction a single area of Mainland, Orkney, becomes transformed as new ‘landscapes’ are created and manipulated. Ultimately, this particular place comes to embody the totality of the Neolithic Orcadian world and acts as an axis mundi for cosmological belief.