The grandest of these tombs had openings cut in the wall, to create side chambers where the most important bodies could be laid out in aristocratic spaciousness like family vaults in a country church. Unlike medieval knights, though, these grandees were buried with eagles and dogs, or even treasure. The kind of thing that the Vikings who broke into these tombs thousands of years later were quick to filch. In return, though, these early tomb raiders left their own legacy. These wonderful graffiti. These runes were carved by the most skilled rune carver in the western ocean. I bedded thorny here. Ingegirth is one horny bitch. As for the Orcadian hoi polloi, well, they ranked space in a common chamber, on a floor carpeted with the bones of hundreds of their predecessors. A crowded waiting room to their afterworld.

 For centuries, life at Skara Brae must have continued in much the same way. But around 2,500 BC, the island climate seems to have got colder and wetter. The red bream disappeared, and so did the stable environment the Orcadians had enjoyed for countless generations. Fields were abandoned, the farmers and fishers migrated, leaving their stone buildings and tombs to be covered by layers of peat, drifting sand and finally grass.

 

 

译文：

 

最豪华墓穴的墙壁上开凿了凹槽，以便让最重要的尸体，能够安息在奢华宽敞的空间内，就像教堂中的家族墓穴。与中世纪的骑士们不同，这些贵族将鹰、狗甚至珍宝作为陪葬品。这些陪葬品让数千年后维京海盗的盗取，易如探囊取物。然而作为回馈，这些早期盗墓者也留下了他们的遗产，这些珍贵的涂鸦，这些如尼文（如尼文:一种已灭绝的文字。特别在斯堪的纳维亚半岛与不列颠岛屿通用），由大西洋最娴熟的雕刻师，书刻在墙上。我在此如卧针毡，茵妮格斯是个浪荡的贱人。而作为奥克尼的平民，只能葬于一间公共墓穴之内，葬于由无数祖先的尸骨铺就的地板之上，一个熙熙攘攘、通向来世的等候室。几个世纪以来，斯卡拉布雷人的生活几乎毫无变化，然而在公元前2500年前后，岛上气候开始变得寒冷潮湿。红鲷鱼灭绝了，让奥克尼人世代安居乐业的气候，也不再规律与稳定。土地变得贫瘠，农民与渔夫开始迁徙，留下了他们的石室、墓穴，任由其被层层泥炭、流沙，与最后的茵茵绿草所覆盖。