Category: Excavation

While Roy Towers our ceramics expert was studying some pot from the later phases of Structure Twelve, he came across another rather fine example of coloured pottery. This body sherd is coloured pink/red – probably by a haematite wash – and has a large applied cordon, with a single deep …

During the 2019 season, we all got very excited about the discovery of what appeared to be a second human arm bone – an ulna – from Structure Ten. This seemed to fit with other previous presumed votive deposits under the later phase rebuild of Structure Ten, when corner buttresses …

Three tiny flint tools are the latest evidence of Mesolithic activity on the Ness of Brodgar peninsula. Previous finds of Mesolithic tools on site suggest people were living and moving across the Ness long before the Neolithic (c.4000–2500BC). The crescent microlith and two backed bladelets were found by lithic specialist …

On August 6, a small, decorated stone was removed from the cell outside the eastern entrance to Structure Twelve. The stone, measuring 18cm long, was among the rubble removed from a blocking deposit but because the incised marks were so faint it was a devil to photograph on site. Here …

 Trench J, and with it Structures Five and Thirty-Two and the “Great Wall of Brodgar”, may have been covered over today, but you can revisit it in detail with this new 3D model from supervisor Paul Durdin. The spectacular model shows Trench J at its finest –  cleaned at …

It’s been a long, hard day of manual labour in some not-so-pleasant weather conditions, but we’ve covered over around 90 percent of the site. Aided by volunteers from the public as well as a group of Highland Park Distillery staff, great progress was made cocooning the archaeology with protective sandbags, …

Day Thirty-Eight Physical traces of a Neolithic potter? This, dear readers, is our last diary of the 2019 excavation season at the Ness. You will have realised that there are certain people who are absolutely essential to the success of this extraordinary archaeological adventure, and we want to thank them …

Day Thirty-Seven Human bone and a standing stone… In the best archaeological tradition, and with two days to go of the 2019 Ness dig, some amazing discoveries have been made – not least of which, and definitely the most unexpected, is the discovery of a second human arm bone from …

And with two days to go, it seems we might have yet another standing stone in Trench P. More details to follow…