5,000-year-old Dulux is found on Orkney

Published on Tuesday 27 July 2010 14:28

EVEN in Stone Age times it seems people were keen on a bit of DIY, with prehistoric hunters in Scotland the first to go in for painting and decorating.

A site in Orkney has produced the first evidence that paint was used to decorate buildings 5,000 years ago in what is being hailed as one of Europe's most astonishing archaeological discoveries.

A stone slab painted red, orange and yellow was uncovered at the site of a prehistoric "cathedral" which itself amazed experts when unearthed last year.

Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, said yesterday: "To find coloured Neolithic paint - 5,000-year-old Dulux - is something we never expected to see.

"We called in every archaeologist we could to look at it and we all concluded that this is the real deal - the first example from Britain, if not northern Europe, that Neolithic people used paint to decorate their buildings."

The cathedral, at 82ft long and 65ft wide, was hailed as the find of a lifetime and left experts in awe of its scale and workmanship. The massive building, of a kind never before seen in Britain, stands between two of Orkney's most famous Neolithic landmarks, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness. It is thought it was part of a vast complex of buildings that would have served as a temple for Stone Age people from across the north of Scotland.

Sandstone, chosen for its natural red and yellow colouring, was used as a decorative feature in the inner sanctum of the cathedral. The same colours can be seen clearly on the painted stone just uncovered at the dig.

Mr Card added: "As well as red and yellow there's orange and a whole spectrum of colours in between.

"It's remarkable that the paint has remained intact after all that time in the ground - and that within half an hour of our first discovery, a second painted stone was found as well.

"Little pots that appear to have held some kind of coloured pigment have been found at other sites in the past.

"We assumed it was used to decorate clothing and pottery and even as make up in the Neolithic period. But paint used on the walls of a building has never been seen before - the mood at the dig was ecstatic when we realised what we'd found."

Tests will now be carried out to discover how the paint was made. But it is thought a mineral called hematite could have been ground up and mixed with animal fat, milk or eggs before being applied to the walls with a tool like a modern paint brush.

The discovery of a lifetime was made by Dutch archaeologist Anniek Manshanden, 22.

She said: "To have found evidence of the first Neolithic painted building is awesome. It's amazing to think that people all those years ago were just like us.

"They wanted their buildings to look good - so they painted them."

Investigative work has been continuing at the Ness of Brodgar since 2003.

The shape and size of the cathedral building are clearly visible, with the walls still standing to a height of more than 3ft.

Far taller when built, they are 16ft thick and surround a cross-shaped inner sanctum where the excavation team found examples of art and furniture created from stone. The building was surrounded by a paved outer passage, which archaeologists believe may have formed a labyrinth that led to the chamber at the heart of the building.I