Seven years ago today was a day to remember. It was the day that the most incredible piece of Neolithic decoration found on site to date emerged from the interior of Structure Ten. Read more
Handmade prints and cards by Orcadian mixed media artist Samantha Gray with a distinctive Ness flavour are now available from our online shop.
Samantha approached us several years ago looking… Read more
Archaeology Institute UHI graduate Gary Lloyd was awarded a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship to complete the research, which focused on the spoon-like artefacts, of which over 80 have been found to date. Read more
Dig Diary – Thursday, July 30, 2020
Day Nineteen
July 30, 2012, saw some intense thinking about the site by site director Nick.
Building on the detailed stratigraphic by the… Read more
By Karen Wallis
This watercolour of incoming clouds represents my love affair with Orkney skies, together with weather, as a constant feature of the excavations.
On my first day as… Read more
Dig Diary – Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Day Eighteen
We kick of proceedings today in Structure Eight, which has revealed much in the way of finds – including huge quartz… Read more
Dig Diary – Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Day Seventeen
On this day in 2011, the “Brodgar Boy” emerged from Structure Fourteen.
The small clay “figurine” was about only 30mm (1.18in)… Read more
Diary – Monday, July 27, 2020Day Sixteen
2011: The macehead and pierced bone in Structure Eight. (📷 ORCA)
Structure Eight has a reputation for fine artefacts and it didn’t disappoint… Read more
A talk by Dr Scott Timpany of the Archaeology Institute UHI on prehistoric woodlands preserved within intertidal peats around the coastline of Britain.
Here Scott… Read more
By Roy Towers
A coloured pottery sherd from Structure Twelve. (📷 ORCA)
When you think about the Ness of Brodgar one word which comes to mind is “abundance”…
There is… Read more
By Jeanne Bouza Rose
In the early 2000s, I got hooked on the Neolithic at the Ness. In 2012, both supplies and volunteers were in short supply.… Read more
Diary – Thursday, July 23, 2020
Day Fourteen
The second week of the 2012 season got under way with the discovery of a human tooth inside Structure… Read more
By Karen Wallis
My work is about human activity, whereas the focus at the Ness is on the evidence provided by objects – either the finds themselves or the structure… Read more
In 2018, a group gathered at the Ness to capture the memories of the season’s excavation in words.
They created a renga – a collaborative poetic form which originated in… Read more
The position of everything found during excavation is recorded digitally in three dimensions. You will know that is what is happening when you see two people shouting numbers at each… Read more
Diary – Monday, July 20, 2020Day Eleven
2011: Ray reveals the first hints of the third hearth in Structure Eight. (📷 ORCA)
There’s nothing like sifting through our archives to… Read more