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 …
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 …
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 …
Archaeology Scotland had the opportunity to visit the Ness during this summer’s eight-week excavation season. Click here to read their report.
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, …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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. …
On August 6, a small, decorated stone was removed from the cell outside the eastern entrance to Structure Twelve. The stone, measuring 18cm long, was among the rubble removed from a blocking deposit but because the incised marks were so faint it was a devil to photograph on site. Here …
Trench J, and with it Structures Five and Thirty-Two and the “Great Wall of Brodgar”, may have been covered over today, but you can revisit it in detail with this new 3D model from supervisor Paul Durdin. The spectacular model shows Trench J at its finest – cleaned at …
It’s been a long, hard day of manual labour in some not-so-pleasant weather conditions, but we’ve covered over around 90 percent of the site. Aided by volunteers from the public as well as a group of Highland Park Distillery staff, great progress was made cocooning the archaeology with protective sandbags, …
Day Thirty-Eight Physical traces of a Neolithic potter? This, dear readers, is our last diary of the 2019 excavation season at the Ness. You will have realised that there are certain people who are absolutely essential to the success of this extraordinary archaeological adventure, and we want to thank them …
