Dig Diary – Eighteen’s entrance discovered as specialists gather on site

Friday, July 14, 2023

Some of the Ness project specialists outside Structure Ten this afternoon. (Sigurd Towrie) — Some of the Ness project specialists outside Structure Ten this afternoon. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Day Ten
Friday, July 14, 2023

Week two ended on an exciting note, with a site visit from most of the specialists involved in the Ness of Brodgar project.

We have experts covering every specialism under the sun – dating, stone tools, pottery, isotopes, DNA and many, many more.

All have arrived in Orkney for a weekend of discussions on our plans for the next phase of post-excavation and publication.

Some of the Ness project specialists outside Structure Twelve. (Sigurd Towrie) — Some of the Ness project specialists outside Structure Twelve. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

A beautiful little scraper found inside Structure Five today. (Sigurd Towrie) — A beautiful little scraper found inside Structure Five today. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Most had been on site before but a few newcomers were left dumbfounded by the archaeology, admittedly looking glorious bathed in this afternoon’s sunshine.

Further group discussions take place tomorrow, looking specifically at publication and what we all want to see completed by the end of 2024.

Not wanting to waste any time after today’s meeting, our archaeomagnetic specialist, Cathy Batt, jumped into Structure Five to sample a later, floating hearth at the building’s south end.

She also double-checked we had all the other hearth samples, in particular the later examples in Structure Eight, which can now be removed.

In Eight’s northern end, XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) samples were taken from the material below the flagging within the entrance.

XRF is a non-destructive analytical technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials.

A major discovery today was the location of Structure Eighteen’s entrance.

A rough outline of Structure Eighteen overlaid on to the northern end of Structure Eight. The location of the suspected entrance is shown in yellow.

Regular readers will know Eighteen is one of two buildings underlying Structure Eight, in this case at the northern end of the later construction.

The entrance was in Eighteen’s eastern recess. It is still being revealed but it is possible that – like Structure Eight – it was originally much wider and has been narrowed.

One of the slabs in the recess also had very fine incised decoration – something for our Neolithic art expert, Dr Antonia Thomas, when she’s back on site next week.

The eastern recess of Structure Eighteen - the site of the suspected entrance - this afternoon. (Sigurd Towrie) — The eastern recess of Structure Eighteen – the site of the suspected entrance – this afternoon. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The eastern recess of Structure Eighteen - the site of the suspected entrance. (Sigurd Towrie) — The eastern recess of Structure Eighteen – the site of the suspected entrance. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

In the south end of Structure Eight, Kristina finished planning the floor deposits and Nick and Alice spent a while discussing a strategy for the removal of the rest of the levelling layer between Eight and Seventeen.

A quick update from Structure Ten. Readers will recall that on Wednesday we thought we had a series of small post-holes under the building’s second-phase north-eastern buttress.

Further investigation has shown this not to be the case. You can’t win them all!

The paving and rubble spread outside Structure Twenty-Six. (Sigurd Towrie) — The paving and rubble spread outside Structure Twenty-Six. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Outside Structure Twenty-Six, we have removed more of the rubble lying beyond the paved area (and holed stone) revealed yesterday.

As is normal for the Ness, the paving doesn’t seem to continue around Twenty-Six, as we expected, but may be heading off in the direction of Structure Ten!

Chris and Emma cleaing the area around Structure Ten's entrance forecourt and standing stone. (Sigurd Towrie) — Chris and Emma cleaing the area around Structure Ten’s entrance forecourt and standing stone. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The discovery of the holed orthostat outside Twenty-Six yesterday, prompted site director Nick to reintroduce the two main fragments of the huge, holed standing stone in the forecourt of Structure Ten.

This will be done again next week for more photography and the creation of a 3d model.