A Bit of a Dog –

Neolithic Orkney Hounded

The head of a dog that lived on Orkney in the Neolithic Period some 4,500 years ago has been recreated in what experts believe is the world’s first canine forensic reconstruction. The first question is when was the Neolithic period and what kind of people lived in it? Well it was the period of history that spanned from circa 4000 to circa 2,500 BCE. Now after that I had to look up BCE, which means Before the Common Era, which it seems has replace BC, Before Christ, not sure when that happened, but it has. This period is also called the later Stone Age. It marked the transition from hunter gatherers to farmers and it is a then just around the corner to our present existence. We know that dogs were domesticated in the Neolithic era on the Scottish island archipelago, but  we also know that they still carried wolf-like characteristics and were about the size of a large collie.

CSI Orkney?

The reconstruction was done by a forensic artist – using techniques similar to those by crime scene investigators – from one of 24 dog skulls that were excavated by archaeologists in Cuween Hill a passage tomb on Orkney’s Mainland, and which have been radiocarbon-dated to 2,500BC, or is it BCE? The dogs were left after the construction of the tomb some 600 years earlier. Of course at this distance we can’t figure out why so many dogs were interred in the tombs, the people of those times left no written but archaeologists are referring to the locals as ‘the dog people of Orkney.’ It doesn’t sound very flattering.  The reconstruction the dog’s head will go on display in Orkney later this year.

Ruff, Ruff – Not at These Prices

But you’d be barking mad not to take a look at our James Pirie sale.  At prices that won’t dog your footsteps. Take the lovely Royal Scot Crystal - Classic Collection Pair of Champagne Flutes for under a tenner. Not to be sniffed at!

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 And something that was just under a ton is now half price at just under fifty quid and that’s the great Royal Scot Crystal - Classic Collection Crystal Ships Decanter. It is a lovely thing.

 

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