Focus on finds – multi-hollowed cobbles

Multi-hollowed Cobble Tool. Hugo Anderson-Whymark
All faces of a multi-hollowed cobble tool found in Structure Twelve in 2014. (📷 Hugo Anderson-Whymark)
Multi-hollowed cobble tool. Sigurd Towrie

There have been some spectacular finds from the Ness of Brodgar. Polished stone axes, maceheads and, of course, our carved stone ball.

But there is one class of worked stone that is perhaps not as glamorous, but which provides a real link to everyday life at the site – multi-hollowed cobble tools.

Multi-hollowed cobble tool. Sigurd Towrie

Don’t let the archaeological classification name put you off – these artefacts are fascinating. They are usually cuboid shaped with a varying number of shaped hollows on the different faces.

Study the indentations and you can see the evidence of prolonged hammering, striking and grinding. These were heavily used work tools.

For full details of multi-hollowed cobbles, you can do no better than visit their section of the Working Stone website.

Multi-hollowed cobble tool strip. Sigurd Towrie

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