Wisdom of the Ancients: Life Lessons From Our Distant Past by Neil Oliver

Author:Neil Oliver [Oliver, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473575264
Google: 0xjFDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 49376831
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2020-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Far-off Fårö and the journeys that matter

Yes, stretch out your hands into infinity you human things.

Past blind moons and ice cream worlds

You hurl your metal ball of dull intelligence

And show us all our fragile grip.

– BOB GELDOF,

‘Thinking Voyager 2 Type Things’

FROM HIGH ABOVE Orkney Mainland, as an astronaut might see it, that hub of the archipelago has the look of a featherless chick fallen from its nest – outsize head and beak to the west, stubby wings and tail to the east. Go back 12,000 years and the sea was lower, more of Orkney proud of the seal splash, whale crash. There has been a drowning since then. No doubt the hunters noticed, and so witnessed the theft of the land their grandparents walked upon. As well as home for those already there, it has been (and remains) a destination for others who glimpsed the hope of it from far away, an end of journeys.

For two and a half centuries or so, since 1783 and Étienne Montgolfier and his hot air balloon flight, we have had the chance to look down on Earth from above. Before that our ancestors had a different angle and saw their own meaningful shapes with hunters’ eyes. Where that fallen chick’s eye would be there are two lochs, fresh Harray and salty Stenness. They are kept apart, yin and yang, by a finger of land, the narrow way between them. At the southern end of the isthmus are stepping stones through a slither of brackish water. For a long time, the gap has been bridged for motor vehicles. A few yards from the crossing, on a table top of higher ground towards the east and the rising sun, is the monument called the Standing Stones of Stenness. All around those stones like shards fallen from space, around those lochs, is what they call the Heart of Orkney, with its UNESCO World Heritage status. Nearby, beyond the other end of the isthmus, is a second circle, the Ring of Brodgar. The burial mound of Maeshowe is minutes away on foot, a pregnant, grassy bump. A thousand years ago its promise of buried treasure lured Vikings. Inside they insolently scratched their runes and beasts on smooth stones that had kept watch over bones much older than their kind. Towards the middle of the isthmus, at the finger’s middle knuckle, is the Ness of Brodgar where Neolithic farmers spent a thousand years raising buildings for both shelter and worship, and razing them down again when they did not suit. Farmers know better now than to dig too deep in fields for fear of finding more and inviting on to their land an infestation of archaeologists.

Orkney is overwhelming, seemingly made of more than three dimensions. Weather is a shaping force, a time lapse of scudding clouds and swelling light, swords of gold and silver lancing from behind cover of bruised shields of sky. Sharp winds rise and leave as fast, and in a huff. Shapes shimmer through mists. Wet insinuates, a mix of fresh and salt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.