Message #167555

[Balderas]

The sites we are talking about go back nearly 5,000 years. In other words, the buildings there predate the Egyptian pyramids. That is what I call seriously old.

My grandchildren sometimes ask me what it was like in the olden days. Well, 5,000 years is definitely the olden days, and I’m pretty sure I wasn't writing columns for the P&J at that time.

Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, who is leading the dig, said the building was effectively a cathedral for the north of Scotland.

“It's spectacular,” he said. “There were hints at the end of last season that we had an enormous building here and now we are able to define it more.”

What is interesting is that the shape and size of the building are visible, with the walls still standing to a height of more than three feet. They are 16 feet thick and surround a cross-shaped inner sanctum where the excavation team have found examples of art and furniture created from stone.

Furniture created from stone? I’ve known some church pews that felt like that. Not so good for the haemorrhoids, really.

It seems that the building was surrounded by a paved outer passage. This could have formed a labyrinth that would have led people through darkness to the chamber at the heart of the building.

This doesn’t sound very Church of Scotlandy to me. Presbyterians don't really go in for walking through labyrinths in the darkness. They don't go much in for candles, either.

Mind you, this great northern cathedral was built long before Presbyterianism was ever thought of. In fact, it was built before Christianity was even heard of.