Bringing Something For the Festival

Standing stones in Orkney do not all come from the same quarry, and they are not erected identically, even in a single circle. They were probably not even all erected at the same time. The Ness of Brodgar, the ritual, working, and living area between the two main sites shows that there were repeated festivals, with cattle being dominant in what was slaughtered and eaten. So it looks like various groups from around the island all brought something to the party, and likely competed over this, because it seems to be Best Stuff. 

It looks like each group brought a honking big stone once in the lengthy building period, and that was probably competitive as well. Quite the potluck.

To accomplish something this difficult takes a lot of people a lot of time, and they have to be spared from other work, like food and shelter. We used to think that this always meant that the leadership was highly organised.  All over Britain evidence is emerging that sometimes it was the people, in non-hierarchical fashion, who were organised. It's hard to say, obviously, but some impressive structures were put up by groups with no evidence of slavery or even much hierarchy.