Since we sent out last month’s newsletter (if you have not signed up yet, click here) we’ve had a number of generous donations to the Ness excavation funds. To respect the privacy of donors we will obviously not be naming anyone but would like to take this opportunity to thank …
Long-time supporters of the Ness Michael and Sara Sinclair have posted a video showing the creation of one of their wooden petropsheres. The auction of one of Michael’s stunning brass petrospheres raised £625 for excavation funds earlier this year. Much of Michael’s inspiration is derived from Orkney’s rich archaeological heritage, with …
(Since posting this, we’ve learned it is not available to viewers outside Europe. Sorry to our non-European followers) A beautiful documentary on Orkney, from ARTE. The film-makers visited the Ness at the start of last year’s dig season to record a segment. The Ness bit begins around 16.21, but take …
Eagle-eyed Cecily has recovered another beautiful find from the flotation residues. After last week’s tiny bead, this time she has found a small fragment of thin flagstone, unusually decorated on both sides. One side of the fragment (pictured above) shows a clear “stacked chevrons” design.
Sometimes it’s the small things that astound — like this tiny stone bead discovered today. Measuring circa 2mm in diameter, the bead must have taken a steady hand and a sharp eye to create and was recovered by Cecily from the residue from an environmental sample taken in Structure Twenty-Six …
To the uninitiated, it might look as though Chris Marshall (right) has secured a sci-fi prop from a 1970s BBC TV programme (Blake’s Seven anyone?) What he is actually doing is testing out an RTI photography rig that will allow detailed examination and recording primarily of our decorated pottery and to …
That well known finds magnet strikes again… Travis, known to some of you from last years on site blog where he gained the reputation for finding several beautiful artefacts, has been gaining more work experience throughout the year assisting Cecily with sorting the residues from the sample flotation process. Occasionally …
Ness of Brodgar site director Nick Card is bound for China next week, to take part in a workshop on heritage management. Nick will travel to Xi’an for the event as an invited guest of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Hailed the birthplace of Chinese …
A date has been set for this year’s pre-excavation lecture by site director Nick Card. The Appliance of Science will take place, in the Orkney Theatre, Kirkwall, on Thursday, June 20, 2019, at 7.30pm. Entry to the talk, hosted by the Orkney Archaeology Society, is by donation. To whet your …
Thank you to all who have been in touch asking about volunteering opportunities at the 2019 excavation. All available places are now full. We have had hundreds of inquiries over the past few months — enough to fill the available spaces multiple times — and would like to thank everyone …
All the team at the Ness would like to send our congratulations to our resident geologist, who has been awarded her PhD. Dr Martha Johnson has worked at the Ness for several years now and her thesis was entitled Rock matters: A geological basis for understanding the rock at the …
Ness director Nick Card is pictured (right) in an article in the latest edition of British Archaeology magazine on the enigmatic carved stone balls of Scotland. Over 200 carved stone balls have been found in Scotland, the size of oranges and each distinctively decorated. They were made in the Neolithic, …
