Stone Age DIY: How Neolithic man decorated his house with homemade paint



Neolithic men were house-proud people who enjoyed doing DIY, new research has revealed.

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that shows our ancestors from 5,000 years ago painted the insides of their Stone Age homes to brighten the place up.

As well as decorating the stone walls, they also painted designs like chevrons and zig-zags on their interiors.

Faint traces of a red chevron design is revealed on a part of the building

They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint, the new research has found.

It is the earliest ever example of man using paint to decorate their properties in Britain, if not in Europe.

Until now experts believed that it was the Romans who were the first to introduce paint to decorate houses to Britain 3,000 years later.

Archaeologists made the discovery at the site of a Stone Age settlement on the island of Orkney.

A neolithic village consisting of 15 small dwellings was first discovered at Brodgar on Orkney in the 1980s.

Then last year archaeologists dug up a number of nearby temples that the inhabitants would have worshipped in.

Several stones used to form the buildings have now been found to have been painted and decorated by the locals in about 3,000 BC.

It is thought this was actually done to enhance important buildings and may have been found in entranceways or areas of the building which had particular significance.

Archaeologists on the dig at the ancient village site at Brodgar on the Orkney Islands. Researchers have discovered traces of decorative paint

Nick Card, of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, said: 'This is a quite exceptional discovery.

'We have found seven stones in this ritual centre. Some of them were covered in paint and others appear to have had designs such as chevrons and zig zags painted on.

'When you think of the neolithic period you think of a grey, monochrome world.

'But we have suspected that colour was a part of their world.

'Paint pots have been found at various other sites before but we assumed this was for personal adornment.

'But we now know they used it to paint their walls.

'Earthy colours were used like oranges, yellows and reddy-browns pigments probably derived from various minerals that had been crushed up and mixed with a binding agent such as animal fat or eggs to create this primitive paint.

'We are not talking Rembrandt, they were pretty basic designs.

'I think the Neolithic people were no different from ourselves in that these were probably special structures which they felt should be adorned in different colours.

'These are the first finds of their kind. A first for the UK if not for northern Europe. It is not yet known if all the walls were painted or if this was reserved for special parts of the building.

'It is remarkable that the paint has remained intact after 5,000 years buried in the ground.

'This is a first for the UK, if not for northern Europe.'

The paint will now be analysed but it is thought it may have been made from hematite mixed with animal fat and perhaps milk or egg.

The painted stones are about 3ft wide and 3ins thick.