An Epic Find

Barley and Beowulf at site of 6,000-year-old Scots building

For the sheep and dairy farmers of northeastern Scotland, the summer of 1976 was unusually harsh. Prolonged drought had parched the countryside, ruining crops and turning flourishing grasslands into brownish straw. But for archaeologists of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the dry spell was something of a bonanza. It had created ideal conditions for observing so-called crop marks, telltale patches on the ground that usually indicate buried remains of ancient building, farming or other activity. Flying over the rolling terrain that summer, the scientists spotted some 650 crop marks, all of potential archaeological interest.

Now, after a year of excavation at one of the more promising sites, a rectangular patch along the River Dee, the archaeologists have made a discovery that could sharply revise prevailing ideas about the beginnings of civilization in Scotland. Located near Balbridie Farm in Kincardineshire, on a sprawling estate west of Aberdeen, the dig has revealed the remains of what may be the oldest structure yet found in the British Isles: a late Stone Age building, reminiscent of the chieftains' hall in the epic Beowulf, that dates back some 6,000 years.

At first, archaeologists thought that the find was related to a 6th century A.D. building, similar in structure, at nearby Doon Hill, in East Lothian. But radiocarbon dating of the wood at Balbridie Farm indicates that the timber was felled as long ago as 4000 B.C. The composition and style of pottery shards found in one of the pestholes are characteristic of that time. Thus the hall was apparently built at least 1,000 years before Stonehenge, and is several centuries older than a small timber hutch in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, that has until now been regarded as the most ancient building in the United Kingdom.

Most of the excavated timber fragments are badly charred. But enough evidence remains to show that the structure was 24 meters (78 ft.) long, 12 meters (39 ft.) wide and covered by a roof that rose some 9 meters (30 ft.) above the ground. It had such distinctive architectural details as bowed end walls, a building style usually associated with structures of the Dark Ages. Just as remarkable, the diggers turned up traces of barley seed, which indicate that the Neolithic builders were skilled agriculturists and perhaps even had domesticated farm animals.

Archaeologists Ian Ralston and Nicholas Reynolds, both 27, acknowledge that they expect "a large measure of disbelief about their find. For one thing, its antiquity runs counter to the prevailing idea about the development of civilization in Scotland: that it slowly edged up from the south. On the contrary, the Balbridie building's age suggests not only that the old Scots were ahead of their English brethren--an appealing thought to any proud wearer of kilt and plaidie--but also that their society was as accomplished as those in the Middle East, where the first glimmerings of civilization are generally thought to have appeared. Indeed, says Ralston, at a time when these old Scots were "supposed to be fumbling with the rudiments of agriculture," they were probably far ahead of many of their Stone Age contemporaries.

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