Hello Siguard, Is there any record of how many monolith's lay beneath the lochs and is there any theory as to what the water levels of the lochs would have been during the period when Brodgar was erected?. I know that many of Orkney lochs have very shallow areas of water, is it possible that these shallows would have been dry land during Brodgar's construction. I noted an old postcard for sale on Ebay UK, it showed the Stone's O Stenness at a time when there was a table top/alter adjacent to the Standing Stones. I remember this slab of stone supported by the stone pillars as a child, but can't recall when or why this was dismantled., can you throw any light on the subject. On the Orkneyjar is states that Orkney was given as a dowry in marriage, which is what I have always been led to believe, but C. Tait seems to disagree, and that it was mortgaged. Can you throw any light on the situation, so far all the searches I have done on the subject confirm the dowry. Take care Grumpy -------Original Message------- From: ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com Date: 27 November 2003 11:08:53 To: ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [] Re: [] "Rediscovered" Stenness monoliths On 27/11/03 at 01:26 Grumpy wrote: >If they took the time to prepare the Brodgar site and measure it so >accurately then I am sure they would not have wasted a lot of effort in >transporting stones they did not intend to use. Ah but who says they were not intending to use the stone. Perhaps it was discarded after being broken (the two stones could be part of one larger monolith)..... >Is the lack of trees on Orkney down to a larger population at the time of >Brodgar, than previously though, who used the timber for construction, >firewood etc. There's no doubt that what woodland existed in Orkney from the Mesolithic through to the Bronza Age suffered as much at the hands of the population as it did with climatic deterioration. (BTW Francis Pryor in his Britain BC touches upon population levels and his related theories - a good read) S. To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com