Focus on finds: Arran pitchstone
Arran pitchstone has only been found at two Neolithic sites in Orkney – the Ness of Brodgar complex and the Barnhouse settlement, some 460 metres to the south-east. Read more
Category: Featured
Blocks and robbers: Was stone robbing more than just prehistoric plundering?
Stone-robbing is the term used for the removal of building material from structures. But “robbing” implies unsavoury behaviour. Desecration.
But was there more to it than just prehistoric plundering? Read more
Enclosing the midden mound – Iron Age activity at the Ness excavation site
The Ness complex was abandoned at the end of the Neolithic, around 2500BC, but at least one section was brought back into use, some 1,800 years later, in the Iron Age. Read more
Skara Brae – the abandonment
The idea that Skara Brae was abandoned overnight in the face of a cataclysm is entirely incorrect. Unfortunately, like many myths surrounding the settlement, it is still often presented as indisputable fact. Read more
