In the shallow waters of Loch Bhorgastail, on the Isle of Lewis in northwestern Scotland, a team of researchers evaluated an ancient crannog using advanced three-dimensional modeling techniques. The work, led by specialists from the University of Southampton and the University of Reading, made it possible to create a high-resolution model of the site using stereophotogrammetry
, which combines photographs taken from different angles.The results show that the structure originated as a circular wooden platform approximately 75 feet in diameter, covered with branches. Findings of Neolithic ceramics in the surrounding area allowed this first construction to be dated to about 5,000 years ago
.Some 2,000 years later, already in the Middle Bronze Age, new layers of branch and stone were added to the crannog. Later, during the Iron Age, around 1,000 years later, a stone road was built that connected the artificial island with the lake shore, although today it is submerged
.An older story than previously thought For a long time it
was believed that crannogs had been built and reused primarily between the Iron Age and the post-medieval period. However, this study confirms that some of these artificial sites have much more remote origins, in the Neolithic period, between 3800 and 3300 BC.
