Skara Brae was inhabited before the Egyptian pyramids were built, and
flourished for centuries before construction began at Stonehenge. After 5,000 years, the houses at Skara Brae still tell a story of the inhabitants' 600 years of culture and history through intact ruins on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The secret of their endurance lies partly in their semi-subterranean stone construction, as well as being covered by sand for eons. The ten homes were buried in ancient middens - which would have provided effective insulative value - and the buildings are connected to each other via mostly underground passageways, forming a tight-knit little village. In 3,000 BCE, the community would have been farther inland, before the sea eroded the shore to where it is today. There may be a lesson in such stone construction; even Thomas Jefferson counseled against structures made of wood, which he believed could never improve a country to any considerable degree. Wood, he wrote, whose duration is estimated at 50 years, becomes a tabula rasa every half century. "Whereas when buildings are of durable materials, every new
edifice is an actual and permanent acquisition to the state, adding to
its value as well as to its ornament.”
