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Title: ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES, SHETLAND AND ORKNEY

Reference number: 3575

Date: 1937*

Director: [filmed by William Kirkness]

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 9.44 mins

Description: A description of the archaeological sites of Jarlshof in Shetland, and Scara Brae, Aikerness and Hower in Orkney.

Shotlist: brief shot of seas breaking on rocks Here is the bronze age foundry at Jarlshof, in Shetland. small girl pushing a stone in a quern These querns could have been used in preparing the clay employed in the making of moulds for casting metal c/u of querns Examination of a section of the sand reveals a layer of vegetation about four inches thick, immediately above the tops of the walls...In considering the date of these buildings let us compare them with the now world-famous settlement of Scara Brae, also in Orkney. Scara has a different geographical setting... A large sandy bay was selected by this colony of workers... shots of site at Scara Brae with c/u of querns (4.11) At the broch at Aikerness, in Orkney, box-like structures or cubicles are quite prominent in the secondary buildings... gvs same (4.54) Returning to Hower, we find a puzzling state of affairs...The buildings at this part were founded on the top of a midden used by an earlier people... gvs same (5.30) As far as is known, the twin buildings at Hower have no exact parallel in Scottish Archaeology. A large land-locked bay may have contained suitable breeding-beds for oysters... But in other buildings in prehistoric times, this material was used in the same manner... shots of site at Hower (8.38) shots of two men on rocky coast, then brief shot of them looking at map with Traill (9.44)