MONUMENTS AS LANDSCAPE - CREATING THE CENTER OF THE WORLD IN LATE NEOLITHIC ORKNEY

In Britain and Ireland there is a tendency for late Neolithic monument s to be clustered in groups and located at similar topographic positio ns. Tn this paper a group of spectacular monuments, including henges, passage graves and standing stones, in Orkney is examined. It is shown how the development of the monuments occurs and how they draw on the visual imagery of the natural world in their architectural representat ion. As each monument embodies a different role and purpose so its arc hitecture and appearance vary. Through a sequence of construction a si ngle area of Mainland, Orkney, becomes transformed as new 'landscapes' are treated and manipulated. Ultimately, this particular place comes to embody the totality of the Neolithic Orcadian world and acts as an axis mundi for cosmological belief.