Dig Diary – Rain, post-holes and more of the ‘Great Wall’

The outer face of the ‘Great Wall’ emerging from the Trench J extension at the close of play today. Outside the wall (to the right of the picture is rubble lying up against it). (Sigurd Towrie)

Day Seven
Tuesday, July 11, 2023

A wet and abandoned Trench P at the start of business today. (Sigurd Towrie)

All good things come to an end.

For us it was the spell of good weather. As such, this is a slightly shorter than usual diary entry.

Day seven dawned wet and grey, the persistent rain and wind seeing the start of excavation postponed until 11am.

Conditions improved somewhat during the day, the drier periods punctuated with squalls of drenching drizzle blowing in from the north-east.

Despite the conditions, progress was made across the site.

In Trench J, the top of the ‘Great Wall of Brodgar’ remains became clearer and suggests the section in the new extension is slightly higher than that already exposed.

UHI Archaeology Institute students Lucille, Vicky, Mary, Jonni and Nanci at work on Trench J’s new extension. (Sigurd Towrie)

Trench J with the two ‘Great Wall’ extensions – one old, one new. (Sigurd Towrie)

As the UHI Archaeology Institute students, aided and instructed by ORCA’s Kevin Kerr, work their way down through the trench, we will see whether the height of the wallhead is entirely due to the rising slope of the ground surface, or whether the wall section does stands taller.

The rain stopped, Chris was able to start sampling Structure Five’s southern floors. (Sigurd Towrie)

In Structure Five, between showers, Chris began sampling the floor of the southern section, while Claire continued excavating the “dresser” to the north of the south-eastern entrance.

Soil sampling was also the order of the day in Five’s northern extension, where Nate and Sarah continued this painstaking task.

Claire excavating the dresser north of Structure Five’s entrance. (Sigurd Towrie)

Over in Trench P, Andy and Bethan continued excavating a series of post-holes running across the centre of Structure One.

These may have held a screen, or partition, that separated the building’s northern and southern sections.

Bethan records the excavated post-holes in Structure One this afternoon. (Sigurd Towrie)

This partition seems to have been the predecessor of the curving wall built across the building (and directly on top of the post-holes) in the building’s second phase.

The post-holes so far cut through the building’s primary occupation layers, suggesting they were a much later addition — probably inserted at the end of the first phase of activity.

Multi-coloured floors. Michele and Emma in Structure Twelve. (Sigurd Towrie)

In Structure Twelve, the cleaning continued and the building’s floors are once again looking lovely with the different colours coming through.

Towards the end of the day, half the labour from Twelve was diverted to other areas – including the building’s eastern annexe and its neighbour Structure Twenty-Six.

Emma in Structure Twenty-Six. (Sigurd Towrie)

Among the visitors braving the elements today were Professor Niall Sharples of Cardiff University and our stone tools specialist Ann Clarke.

Ann is on site for a few days in advance of the Ness of Brodgar specialists meeting taking place on Friday and Saturday. She will be looking at the worked stone from the site, in particular some of the large pieces, which she will complete cataloguing this week.

With site director Nick Card on site, as well as Professor Mark Edmonds, it was something of a reunion. They, along with Ann Clarke and Niall Sharples were all products of the Artefact Research Unit in Edinburgh!

As I write today’s diary, the sky is beginning to look much less ominous, although I’m not holding out for a return to sunny conditions tomorrow.

But as long as the rain holds off, digging will continue.