Most of the artefacts you see in the pages of the daily diary are fresh from 5,000 years in the soil and, clearly, don’t look their best.
Here is a… Read more
Day Eighteen
Thunder, lightning and no excavation!
What can we say of today, except…ugh!
To be fair it is not just today to blame; Tuesday night as well as this… Read more
Ness of Brodgar artist-in-residence Karen Wallis has completed the oil painting she is donating to the 2019 Ness of Brodgar Trust Grand Draw.
The painting, pictured above, is just one… Read more
After a day basking in glorious sunshine, Orkney’s weather did what it does best – change! Gales, rain and thunder saw excavation work cancelled this morning.
It’s forecast to improve… Read more
Day Seventeen
Sunshine, blistering heat and flies…
Wow. What a day. Blistering heat. Flies. Dust.
See, us archaeology types are never happy. Just last week we were complaining about the… Read more
The putative passageway (or is it a recess?) between Structures Twelve and Twenty Six, as recorded by Professor Scott Pike this afternoon.
Click on the images for a larger version.… Read more
Day Fifteen
Definitely a ‘Special Sunday’
Well, dear readers, that has been a truly marvellous day.
Almost 800 visitors attended the first of our “Special Sunday” open days and the… Read more
The Ness of Brodgar excavation featured in the February 2018 edition of Current Archaeology magazine.
But such was the demand that all printed copies sold out quickly.
However, thanks to… Read more
In a week that saw Structure Eight produce numerous examples of decorated stone, we also received a number of photographs of Ness artefacts that have undergone conservation work by experts… Read more
Open and on-site for the duration of the dig is the visitor gift shop.
The shop is there to raise much-needed funds for the dig. This year it has… Read more
A link to the BBC article on this week’s finds from Structure Eight: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-49030379… Read more
Day Fourteen
Revelations and cloud dodging
Oh what would we give for a day of uninterrupted excavation!
Thursday dawned bright and reasonably clear and as the morning wore on the… Read more
Perhaps not as grand as the examples earlier this week, but another decorated stone slab was found in Structure Eight today.
The incised decoration is essentially the same “classic” banded… Read more
Rain brought excavation to a halt early today. But here’s a selection of pictures. Click on a thumbnail for a larger version.
Photographs by Jo Bourne and Sigurd Towrie.… Read more
Day Thirteen
Raising the threshold stone
This is the day that all true aficionados of Structure Ten have longed for.
Over the years the massive threshold stone in the very… Read more