Customer Reviews

Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland's Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae

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While any accurate photos and information on Skara Brae are a gift to the world, this book is a disappointment. It appears more as a quick way to make a buck than an homage to a marvel of pre-history.

My impression, however accurate or not, is that the author skimmed what travel brochures she could obtain at the site and reformatted the information for the pages of a hasty book.

But seek out any windows, including this book if nothing else, to see the world of Skara Brae, where people didn't have wood and had to build with stone, leaving intact their great rooms, tables, bed-nooks, and even niches in the bed-area walls, (for personal effects?). I feel the centuries between us erode when I see pictures of their everyday structures, which are otherwise lost in houses build of wood.

- Jane Yett

Caroline Arnold, Stone Age Farmers by the Sea (Clarion, 1997)

Stone Age Farmers by the Sea, aimed at a young market, is an interesting introduction and overview to the Orkney archaeological site of Skara Brae. While it's hard to call any sixty-four page profusely-illustrated book comprehensive, Stone Age Farmers by the Sea pauses to consider a number of introductory things that many more advanced-age books ignore, perhaps because those books assume the reader already knows a good bit about Skara Brae. Arnold, by not falling into that trap, comes up with a book that can be enjoyed by young and old novices to Skara Brae alike. *** ½

I didn't realize this was a young persons title when I added it to my wish list. After receiving it as a gift, I was at first disappointed. But once I opened it and started reading, almost all was OK. The book is well-written, even if it is targeted for the 8-12 crowd and the pictures are great! The only negative is the $ for such a short book. It's less than 50 pages, but it is nicely printed and bound. I'll enjoy it now and my kids will in a few years when they are older.