Dig Diary Extra – a batch of beads…
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
Monthly Archive: July 2019
Dig Diary – Wednesday, July 24, 2019
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
Prize Draw painting completed and ready to raffle…
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
Hit by the weather again!
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 in pictures…
A few pictures from a glorious day on site from Jo Bourne and Sigurd Towrie.
Click on any image for an enlargement.… Read more
Dig Diary – Tuesday, July 23, 2019
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
Dig Diary extra – the Structure Twelve ‘passage’ from above
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
Dig Diary – Monday, July 22, 2019
Day Sixteen
‘An absolute sea of orthostats’
We had the first of our Ness Open Days yesterday and the site and the Stenness Community Centre… Read more
Day Fifteen in pictures…
A selection of pictures from today’s open day from Jo Bourne and Sigurd Towrie.
Click on any image for a larger version.… Read more
Dig Diary – Sunday, July 21, 2019
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
Our first ‘Special Sunday’ from above…
Three drone pictures from Professor Scott Pike of today’s Special Sunday open day.
Click on the images for a larger version.… Read more
‘Current Archaeology’ Ness of Brodgar article – download for free
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
Post-conservation – the 2015 incised stone from Structure Eight
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
Looking back: The carved stone ball from Structure Ten
Wednesday, August 7, 2013, was a special day in the history of the Ness of Brodgar excavations.
That was the day… Read more
Pop to the shop and help us keep digging
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
Link: ‘Stunning’ decorated Neolithic stone discovered in Orkney
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
Dig Diary – Thursday, July 18, 2019
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
Decorated stone keeps coming…
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
Day Thirteen in pictures…
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
Dig Diary – Wednesday, July 17, 2019
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
