Editing Skara Brae (section)

==Discovery and early exploration==
In the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths.<ref name=bryson2010>{{harvnb|Bryson|2010}}</ref> In the [[Bay of Skaill]], the storm stripped earth from a large irregular [[Hillock|knoll]]. (The name Skara Brae is a corruption of Skerrabra or Styerrabrae, which originally referred to the knoll.<ref name=":0" />) When the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village consisting of several small houses without roofs.<ref name=bryson2010/><ref name=OSB>{{cite web |url= http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006160509/http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/ |archive-date=2012-10-06 |title=Skara Brae: The Discovery of the Village |website=Orkneyjar.com |access-date=29 September 2012}}</ref> William Graham Watt of [[Skaill House]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The House |url=https://skaillhouse.co.uk/the-house/ |website=skaillhouse.co.uk |access-date=1 September 2024}}</ref> a son of the local [[laird]] who was a self-taught [[geologist]], began an amateur excavation of the site, but after four houses were uncovered, work was abandoned in 1868.<ref name="aosb">{{cite web |last1=Long |first1=Patricia |title=A Skara Brae Whodunnit |url= https://www.aboutorkney.com/2020/06/17/a-skara-brae-whodunnit/ |website=About Orkney |date=17 June 2020 |access-date=25 June 2023}}</ref> 

The site remained undisturbed until 1913, when during a single weekend, the site was plundered by a party with shovels who took away an unknown quantity of artefacts.<ref name=bryson2010/> In 1924, another storm swept away part of one of the houses, and it was determined the site should be secured and properly investigated.<ref name=bryson2010/> The job was given to the [[University of Edinburgh]]'s Professor [[V. Gordon Childe|Vere Childe]], who travelled to Skara Brae for the first time in mid-1927.<ref name=bryson2010/>

In 2019, a series of photographs showing Childe and four women at the site of the excavation were re-examined. It had been widely believed that the women were tourists or local women visiting the excavation site, but a note on the back of the photographs identified the women as "4 of [Childe's] lady students", and it seems that they were active participants in the excavation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |last2=Katz |first2=Brigit |title=Internet Sleuths Were on the Case to Name the Women Archaeologists in These Excavation Photos |url= https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/internet-sleuths-help-uncover-names-female-archaeologists-20th-century-photographs-180971828/ |access-date=2024-08-21 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> The women have been tentatively identified as [[Margaret E. B. Simpson|Margaret Simpson]] (who was acknowledged in Childe's monographs about Skara Brae), Margaret Mitchell, Mary Kennedy, and [[Margaret Cole]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-03-21 |title= Skara Brae women archaeologists who were written out of history |url= https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-47639736 |access-date=2024-08-21 |language=en-GB}}</ref>