But it was not originally built and lived in "underground" - "Skara Brae got covered with sand dunes over the years",
@Neverdul The way *I* read it is that over the years the rooms filled with sand and were covered as sand dunes formed from blowing sand."
I grew up on the ocean front in a remote area,and I remember seeing a couple of abandoned houses filled and covered by dunes in my time. One still had an original "ice box" in it for storing food,and I still wish I had rescued that before the house was completely filled. Yeah,it is all still there,but you would get arrested these days if you tried to dig in that area.
Funny true story. A retired banker bought all that acreage in the early 70's,and started selling lots. A hundred years ago the sand dunes had been covered with trees,but the salt air and blowing sand eventually killed them,leaving "stump holes" You could be walking along a dune and have your leg fall into the hole. That wasn't the funny part,though. Back in the late 1800's there used to be a big graveyard there. The graves just disappeared as sand moved in because most of the tombstones were made from wood. I do remember one that was dated in the 1600's,though. It disappeared around 1970.
Soooo,the banker sold lots,and the people who bought the lots had houses built. The first winter storm came along and left a LOT of them pissed. The grading done to level the dunes and to put in driveways,etc,etc,etc left the covering thinner,and that first big storm had people walking out of their houses the next day to find human skulls and other bones in their yards. Let's just say they weren't very happy about it.
I haven't been back there in decades,but I am guessing that all the dunes have now disappeared under grass and Miracle Grow.
