Ceiridwen’s photographs capture the pottery triage process

On Tuesday, we showed the beautiful sherd of pottery Ceiridwen Blakesley was working on as part of our ongoing pottery triage project.

Regular readers will no doubt recognise Ceiridwen from her dig diary appearance over the years. An archaeologist from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, she began digging at the Ness in 2018 and returned as a volunteer every year until fieldwork ended in 2024.

This year, after a spell excavating at the UHI Archaeology Institute’s Iron Age research dig at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Ceiridwen is back at the Ness to help tackle our huge assemblage of Neolithic pottery.

She has been documenting her work in some spectacular photographs and we felt we should share some of these with you.