Category: Ceramics

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

A puzzling piece of pottery!

Successfully turned – one of the pottery sherds recovered from outside Structure Twelve’s blocked north-western entrance earlier in the season. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) Dig Diary – Day Twenty-EightWednesday, August 4,… Read more

3D Model / Ceramics

Monday, July 26, 2021

New 3D model of Structure Twelve pot sherd’s decorated face

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

Artefacts / Ceramics / Excavation

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Dig Diary Extra – a ‘striking piece of fine pottery’

Ceramics / Post-excavation

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Analysis suggests two young men left fingerprints on Ness pottery fragment

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

Ceramics / Post-excavation

Friday, April 23, 2021

Potter’s fingerprint discovered on 5,000-year-old sherd

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

Ceramics

Friday, April 16, 2021

Evidence of fine ceramics at the Ness?

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 textile use at the Ness of Brodgar

Ceramics / News

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Textile evidence from the Ness among Scotland’s ‘most groundbreaking archaeological discoveries’ of 2020

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

Trench T Scalloped Rim from the Ness of Brodgar

Ceramics

Friday, December 11, 2020

Scalloped-rim pots from Trench T – an early Christmas present at Ness HQ

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

Ceramics / Featured

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Introducing ceramics 9 – the bridge and the Bronze Age

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

Ceramics

Monday, August 31, 2020

Introducing ceramics 8 – the dimpled-base experiments

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

Ceramics

Monday, August 24, 2020

Introducing ceramics 7 – colour

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

Ceramics

Friday, August 21, 2020

Introducing ceramics 6 – sticking cordons

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

Ceramics

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Introducing ceramics 5 – firing

So, our Neolithic Grooved Ware is formed, dried, decorated and ready for the all-important firing. What comes next? Read more

Ceramics

Friday, August 14, 2020

Introducing ceramics 4 – why the changes?

The hunt is on for clues, for any evidence of change through time. If you are a historian that can come in a dusty library as you leaf through old documents. Read more

Creating a coil pot (Mike and Claire Copper)

Ceramics

Saturday, August 8, 2020

Introducing ceramics 3 – how was Neolithic pottery made?

How was Neolithic pottery made, and in particular the Grooved Ware pottery from the Ness of Brodgar? Read more

Ceramics

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Introducing ceramics 2: The excavation process

By Roy Towers A large sherd of decorated Grooved Ware pottery ready to be lifted. (ORCA) Pottery is remarkable stuff. It may be broken, kicked about, scuffed and generally disrespected,… Read more

Ceramics / Reconstruction

Saturday, July 25, 2020

Introducing ceramics: An abundance of pottery

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

Ceramics

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Pot sherd – before and after…

Hot off the press! A before and after shot of a classic sherd of Neolithic Grooved Ware pot from Structure Twelve. Picture one (above) shows the sherd emerging and picture… Read more

Category: Ceramics

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