So do you think this would have been a challenging environment to be farming in?

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, it's challenging nowadays, and it wouldn't have been any different then.

It's light, sandy soils are ideal for cultivation in that they can be worked easily and turned easily, but they're also very prone to erosion, and it's a very windy place.

[instrumental music]

If the researchers are right, then the Westray wifey is unique, a 5,000-year-old household goddess perhaps.

Figurines of this type are usually thought to be goddesses or, you know, some r- religious deity kind of thing.

Each layer of soil tells a story of a struggle to make farming work here.

When we actually look at the profiles, the soil profiles from the earliest times, what we have are cultivated soils swamped again and again by blowing sand.

So do you think this would have been a challenging environment to be farming in? Yes, yeah.

I mean it's challenging nowadays and it wouldn't have been any different then.

It's light sandy soils are ideal for cultivation in that they can be worked easily and turned easily but they're also very prone to erosion and it's a very windy place.

Can we get a bit closer to it down

there? This is really peculiar.

You can see a whole line of them here.