This month’s National Geographic has it usual stunning pictures, but also an article about an ancient and prosperous society around 2,500 BCE. It was not in the Middle East, but on Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands.
The artifacts pictured are of buildings produced by advanced architecture from what was obviously a complex society. It is not known who they were or what became of them. But, because they used stones, some history of the group remains. Wooden buildings would not have left us with as much.
Two parts of the Scotland story struck me. One was that the layout of the buildings point to some religious meaning. Commerce and religion were mixed, perhaps like the Mexican catholic churches surrounded by the market plaza.
The other is that the society and its religion came to a dramatic end. There was some kind of huge final festival followed by destruction and burial of the complex buildings that had served for some 1000 years.
A couple of events are speculated to have played a role in the society’s demise. One was weather which seemed to have changed and crop yields may have suffered. The other was the bronze age which changed societies in many ways.
In any case, the society whose buildings and religion must have amazed and intimidated other groups of the time is lost to the sands of time. Like thousands of other religions, outside forces swept one religion out and another in.
It makes one see our religions and our time as insignificant.