A blog post by Dr Mike Copper following the rise and demise of Grooved Ware and revealing the insights into the Late Neolithic that this pottery can provide. Read more
Revisiting Grooved Ware Understanding Ceramic Trajectories in Britain and Ireland, 3200–2400 cal BC, edited by Mike Copper, Alasdair Whittle and Alison Sheridan, presents a series of papers offering both regional and thematic perspectives on the ceramic style. Read more
A new 3d model from Trench J supervisor Paul Durdin - this one showing the beautiful, and apparently intact Grooved Ware pot found between Structures Twenty-Nine and One on Thursday afternoon. Read more
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
Albert Einstein
Professor Oliver Craig and Julia Becher at Skara Brae in August 2021.
By… Read more
A 5000-year-old male palm print was discovered on a pottery sherd at the Ness of Brodgar. The artefact was analysed using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and it was concluded that the print most likely belonged to a man around 22 years old. Read more
Dr. Mike Copper co-authored a paper analysing the adoption, development, and demise of Neolithic Grooved Ware pottery in Scotland, positing its origins in Orkney around 3160-3090 BC. Read more
An image of the latest Ness of Brodgar fingerprints captured using Reflectance Transformation Imaging. (Jan Blatchford)
The latest prehistoric fingerprints on a pottery fragment from the Ness of Brodgar belonged… Read more
Examination of a fourth fingerprint found on pottery sherds from the Ness of Brodgar suggests it was left by an adult male.
The analysis by Professor Kent Fowler, the director… Read more
Dig Diary – Day Twenty-Eight
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Today has been busy, with sultry weather and, as close of play draws near, some dramatic thunder and lightning
However, work… Read more
A new week…a new 3D model.
On July 19, we shared the model of a huge Grooved Ware pot sherd from outside the blocked-up north-west entrance to Structure Twelve.
The… Read more
In April we shared the exciting news that the fingerprint of a Neolithic potter was found on a ceramic sherd recovered from Trench X.
We can now tell you that… Read more
The Neolithic potter’s fingerprint on a sherd of pottery recovered at the Ness of Brodgar. (📷 Jan Blatchford)
In Orkney, around 5,000 years ago, a Neolithic potter sat down and… Read more
By Roy Towers
Many of you will be familiar with the work of Cecily Webster, our eagle-eyed flotation expert, and her assistant, Travis.
Their task is to take the buckets… Read more
Evidence of a woven Neolithic textile found during post-excavation work at the Ness has been named one of Scotland’s “most groundbreaking discoveries of 2020”.
The Covid pandemic has had… Read more
By Roy Towers
It’s nearly Christmas and many of us will be looking forward to exciting and enigmatic parcels of presents to open. At Ness HQ we have unwrapped an… Read more
The last part of our series is rooted in ceramics research but leads down a twisting, and surprising path. We travel from the Bronze Age to Victorian times, meeting along the way an archaeological villain, a naval tragedy, a world-beating iron bridge and a careful and underrated antiquarian. Read more
Dimple bases are basal sherds, with finger-impressed dimples on the interior surface, found on Early and Middle Iron Age sites right around the Atlantic coast. Read more
Coloured pot reconstructions. (📷 Cecily Webster)
By Roy Towers
One of the joys of working with ceramics within the UHI Archaeological Institute in Orkney is the opportunity to collaborate with… Read more
At Structure Twelve, sometime in the decades around c. 2300 cal BC, a potter lost his temper. Fed up with their cordons falling off, they adopted a radical solution. Read more