MANCHESTER, ENGLAND—Archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Islands, The University of Manchester, and the University of Central Lancashire were walking to a known archaeological site in the Orkney Islands when they discovered a Bronze Age settlement on the Sanday sea shore. The circular stone spreads were covered with stone tools. “This is a major discovery as the houses and a Bronze Age land-surface has clearly been sealed beneath the dune system for some 4,000 years. It was the scale and density of occupation that really surprised us. Not only are house structures present but working areas are also visible,” Colin Richards of The University of Manchester said in a press release. The estimated 14 houses and working areas were roughly evenly spaced over a little more than a half-mile of beach. “This must be one of the biggest complexes of Bronze Age settlement in the Scottish isles, rivalling the spreads of hut circles in other parts of mainland Scotland,” added Jane Downes of the University of the Highlands and Islands. To read more about archaeology in the Orkney Islands, go to "Neolithic Europe's Remote Heart."