Make a date! 2020 dig calendar now available
Click here for more details on visiting the site, and on tours.
Ness success acknowledged in Scottish Parliament
The Ness of Brodgar has been congratulated in the Scottish Parliament for its success in the 2019 Shanghai Archaeology Forum Field Discovery Awards. The motion (detailed below) was tabled by Orkney MSP Liam McArthur and is the second time the project has been acknowledged at Holyrood. The first was in …
Another sherd of coloured pottery
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 …
Shanghai award for the Ness of Brodgar
The Ness of Brodgar has been selected for a 2019 Shanghai Archaeology Forum Field Discovery Award. Having heard we had been nominated a few weeks ago, we have just learnt that we have won an award. For this year’s forum, a total of 141 nominations from around the world were …
2020 excavation dates set
The dates for the 2020 excavation season at the Ness have been confirmed. We will be back on site from July 6, 2020 until August 21, 2020, with the site open to the public, with tours running, from July 8 until August 19. Next year’s two open days will be …
Sea eagle bone deposit confirmed in Structure Ten
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 …
Ness nominated for Shanghai Archaeology Forum award
The Ness of Brodgar has been nominated both by Professor Eszter Bánffy of the German Archaeological Institute, and Dr Michael Boyd of the University of Cambridge for the prestigious 2019 Shanghai Archaeology Forum (SAF) Awards Program (Discovery Award). Founded in 2013, Shanghai Archaeology Forum is a global initiative dedicated to …
Link – Archaeology Scotland’s visit to the Ness
Archaeology Scotland had the opportunity to visit the Ness during this summer’s eight-week excavation season. Click here to read their report.
Library talk to launch new book on Neolithic Orkney
Professor Mark Edmonds will launch his new book, Orcadia – Land, Sea and Stone in Neolithic Orkney, at an open event in the Stromness Library on Monday evening, October 14. At the launch, Mark will give a talk on Neolithic Orkney and some of the material covered in his book, …
Orcadia – weaving an evocative picture of Neolithic Orkney
A must buy for anyone interested in the Neolithic of Orkney and its wonderful sites, is the brilliant new book Orcadia – Land, Sea and Stone in Neolithic Orkney by Professor Mark Edmonds, long-term friend and supporter of the Ness. This handsome and beautifully written volume really puts the Ness …
Article link – Summer of finds at the Ness of Brodgar
A link to today’s Current Archaeology’s article on this summer’s excavation: https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/summer-of-finds-at-the-ness-of-brodgar.htm
A very special visitor to the Ness…
The Ness was very pleased today to welcome a special guest to site – well in fact two – Morph and his creator Peter Lord and his family. Peter is the animator, film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio – best known for his clay-animated films …
Microliths add to evidence of Mesolithic activity on the Ness
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 …
From the Art Hut
This year the Art Hut hosted four artists: Jeanne Bouza Rose, Diane Eagles, Karen Wallis, and Annie Wright. For the first four weeks of the excavation, Annie Wright took photos of the diggers and the stones, portraying “Life in the Trenches”, as part of her collections of ancient heritage sites. …