Dig diary – an external working area and possible rock art

Wednesday, July 22, 2026 (7:12 PM)

Drone shot of the trench at close of play today. (📷 Jim Rylatt)

Day 13
Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Another very productive day on site with excavation in and around the remains of our new building.

While work to unpick the biography of the structure continued, in the north-eastern quadrant, Ben found an excavated a “work hollow” – a space directly outside the building that appears to have been used for various tasks. Among the finds were a hammerstone, a Skaill knife and a split cobble.

Ben's 'work hollow' area outside the north-eastern end of the building. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — Ben’s ‘work hollow’ area outside the north-eastern end of the building. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Worked stone tool, showing clear signs of use and polishing, recovered by Ray at the building's south-west side. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Ben's hammerstone from the work area to the north-east of the structure. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Ben’s hammerstone (left) alongside Ray’s worked stone tool from the opposite side of the structure. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Today we bade a fond farewell to Time Team‘s Dan Wootton. Her last day on site was marked with a special find in the south-east quadrant.

Dani was working in a section, alongside Tom and Jem, when she noticed something small against the trench edge. Some careful trowelling later and she recovered a small stone fragment that appears to have some lightly incised, very ephemeral geometric decoration.

The jury’s out as to whether it is definitely a decorated stone but we’ll know more when it’s carefully cleaned and examined further.

I’ll leave it there for now but will be back tomorrow with further updates.