Explore the historic highlights of Mérida
Mérida, Spain
8 BCE
Mérida, Spain
16-15 BCE
Mérida, Spain
1986
Mérida, Spain
1479
Mérida, Spain
835 AD
Mérida, Spain
25 BCE
Mérida, Spain
1st century AD
Mérida, Spain
1st century AD
Mérida, Spain
13th century
Mérida, Spain
2nd century AD
Mérida, Spain
1st century AD
Mérida, Spain
c. 20 BCE
Mérida, Spain
3000 BCE
Mérida, Spain
1st century AD
Mérida, Spain
1st century AD
At Knap of Howar on the island of Papa Westray, a Neolithic farmstead may be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe. Radiocarbon dating shows that it was occupied from 3700 BC to 2800 BC, earlier than the similar houses in the settlement at Skara Brae on the Orkney Mainland.
The farmstead consists of two adjacent rounded rectangular thick-walled buildings with very low doorways facing the sea. The larger and older structure is linked by a low passageway to the other building, which has been interpreted as a workshop or a second house. They were constructed on an earlier midden, and were surrounded by midden material which has protected them. There are no windows; the structures were presumably lit by fire, with a hole in the roof to let out smoke. Though they now stand close to the shore, they would have originally lain inland.