Working around the entrance to Structure Twelve there is a key rule…
… all stone removed from the area must be washed and checked for incised marks. And it’s a… Read more
A few photographs of sections of the incised stone recovered from Structure Seventeen on July 25.
The slab features four bands of decoration, but areas appear to have been worn away while… Read more
Not all finds from the Ness are in immaculate condition, as these newly received pictures of a macehead fragment, post-conservation, show.
Compare this badly damaged artefact with the condition of… Read more
We mentioned yesterday that in the closing minutes of the day, an axehead/macehead blank was found in the same area as the spectacular macehead earlier in the day.
Here is the… Read more
It’s been a frantically busy day on site today – but also an incredibly exciting one.
We’re busily putting together today’s dig diary and gathering hundreds of photographs from all… Read more
(📷 Ole Thoenies)
This strange worked bone, probably the shaft of a polished pin, was found in Structure Eight on July 22, 2019.
We say “strange” because the artefact is… Read more
Arrowhead fragment (📷 Ole Thoenies)
The Early Bronze Age barbed-and-tanged arrowhead found in the outer passage of Structure Ten in July 2017. (📷 ORCA)
On July 9, 2019, the tip… Read more
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
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
After yesterday’s discovery, we thought it couldn’t get any better.
Then today, as the weary excavators began making their way home, the Structure Eight team emerged from the building clutching… Read more
Structure Eight – or more correctly an earlier building lying beneath it – produced another stunning example of Neolithic decorate stone today.
The stone, pictured above, was spotted by Lorna… Read more
The spatulate stone tools found at the Ness over the past few years are the subject of a new research project this summer.
Archaeology Institute UHI undergraduate Gary Lloyd… Read more
Eagle-eyed Cecily has recovered another beautiful find from the flotation residues. After last week’s tiny bead, this time she has found a small fragment of thin flagstone, unusually decorated on both… Read more
Sometimes it’s the small things that astound — like this tiny stone bead discovered today.
Measuring circa 2mm in diameter, the bead must have taken a steady hand and a… Read more
To the uninitiated, it might look as though Chris Marshall (right) has secured a sci-fi prop from a 1970s BBC TV programme (Blake’s Seven anyone?)
What he is actually doing… Read more