Photos of Wonderful Neolithic Prehistoric Villages, Towns & Broch archaeological sites of Europe, Near East & North Africa. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams
Prehistoric & Neolithic Museum Antiquities & Art Photo Collections
Individual Museum Collections
Photo Collections of Prehistoric Villages Towns & Brochs
We can get a real sense of our connection with our prehistoric ancestors through the archaeology of prehistoric villages. The most complete Neolithic village ruins in Europe is Skara Brae on the Isle of Orkney.
Dating back to around 3180 BC the houses of Skara Brae were constructed of circular stone build built walls topped by a wood pitched roof that was covered with turf.
A central fire burnt below a central hole in the roof. A group of houses were build next to each other connected by small alleys. Each house had bed chambers with stone walls, stone troughs that were though to hold water or bait to be used for fishing and a pice of stone furniture resembled a sideboard on which was found valued items.
Skara Brae houses were bedsits built around a central fire for cooking and heating.
The basic layout of these Neolithic houses can still be seen in the black houses of the Isles of Lewis in Scotland that were inhabited up until the 1960s.
The Prehistoric Brochs, fortified villages of Scotland also give us a very visual link to our past. Brochs had a central round stone tower occupied by the chief of the clan and his family surrounded by smaller dwellings, the whole village being enclosed by defensive walls and ditches.
This idea can be seen in the way the Normans built their castles with a keep at its centre for the lord to live in. The discovery of prehistoric villages and the use of new scientific techniques is revealing that man has lived in a similar manner for thousands of years and that there is a strong connection between modern and prehistoric man.
Catalhoyuk (Çatalhöyük ) archaeological site, near Konya, Turkey is the biggest Neolithic settlement yet discovered has yielded archaeology that uncovered a Neolithic world unknown to archaeologists. The square Neolithic houses at Catalhoyuk were built tightly packed together.
Photos of all these prehistoric settlements and more can be found in this photo collection.