A village older than the pyramids was uncovered by a storm.
In the winter of 1850 a gale stripped the sand from a dune on Orkney, revealing houses from 3180–2500 BC with stone beds, hearths and dressers facing the door.
The event
32nd century BC · 19th century
More amazing facts
- 3300 BC · 3200 BC Ötzi died in the Alps around 3300 BC, about when writing appeared in Sumerian Uruk.
- 3300 BC Cacao was first used not in Mexico but in Ecuador, 5,300 years ago. The South American Mayo-Chinchipe culture domesticated it, and only later did it reach Mesoamerica, the Olmecs and the Maya.
- 3300 BC · 1902 Malta's underground temple was found by builders, who at first tried to hide it. In 1902 workers cutting cisterns for new houses broke through the roof of the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, later found to hold the remains of some 7,000 people.
- 3300 BC Ötzi, who died in the Alps 5,300 years ago, has 61 tattoos.
- 3200 BC Possibly the first personal name ever written belongs not to a king but to an accountant.
- 3100 BC · 2560 BC Ireland's Newgrange is about 500 years older than both Stonehenge in its present form and the Great Pyramid.