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Monday 22 March 2010

The Westray Wife.....

Last August archaeologists came across a small crudely carved figure at a dig in Westray, it is estimated to be 5000 years old and thought to be the earliest representation of a human figure found in Scotland. This figure is officially referred to as the Orkney Venus but appears now to be called locally "The Westray Wife". The term "wife" in Orkney is a generic term for "woman" whether she is single, married or divorced! I'm known as "the wife of Sandside", or sometimes "the peedie wife" (peedie = small). Anyway I digress, click here for a short YouTube film showing a 3D representation of the figure.

The "Westray Wife" is on a tour of Scotland at the moment and will return to Orkney in the summer so I'm hoping to be able to see it for real, and perhaps to see some of the dig too. Personally I think it should be called "the Peedie Wife of Westray"......

Note - on a totally unrelated topic, I have recently discovered a great blog written by "DancingBeastie" about seasonal life in a Scottish castle - so take a look at today's entry "What it feels like to inherit a castle in Scotland".

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the link, Sian, and especially for your encouraging comments. They make all the difference. Lots of readers today, mostly thanks to you I imagine...

    How's the tractor driving going? We need an update!

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  2. Still waiting for the mechanic to fix tractor! Meantime I'm eating lots of chocolate in the hope I might weigh enough to not need the modifications..... my excuse anyway!

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