Bits and pieces – putting together a Neolithic pottery jigsaw

By Joanne Greaves

I’m Joanne Greaves and my involvement with the Ness of Brodgar project began in 2023 on the Meet-and-Greet team. after the final year of excavation, in 2024, I moved on to the “Sherd Nerd” team in 2025, triaging the amazing quantity of pottery from the site. This really opened up the Ness’s narrative for me.

Obviously the whole site has a narrative but these little pieces of Neolithic pottery really get you thinking – what is the reason for the pot?; who was the potter who made it?; who were the people who used it, who threw it away? And finally, the people who then walked atop the pot that had been put into midden. Even the tiniest pieces of “crud” were appealing to me, still holding little secrets of stories and lives long forgotten.

I couldn’t wait to return to the triage team this year, so when I received an email from Anne and Jan asking if I would like to pop out and help with a pot they have, with quite a few pieces to it, the excitement came early! I had no idea about the actual pot, so when the day arrived, I went along to Ness HQ and coolly accepted the offer (not so sure I was so cool — my head felt like it was going to explode with excitement). The excitement increased as they showed me the most magnificent pieces of one Neolithic pot, with beautiful incised lines, crosses and dots. We were looking at real life treasure!

The initial information we had was that it came from the vicinity of Structure Thirty-Four and was found in 2024. Cross referencing to context sheets, small finds registers, site matrices and sample numbers confirmed its general location, however it actually came from below Thirty-Four and was found within the upper fill of the “mega-drain”.

What we had was a box of sherds plus two separate, small sherds also found in 2024 and then a larger bag of ceramic fragments found by Cecily while flotting in early April 2026.  It seemed possible that we might have a nearly whole pot!  Subsequently, as a result of clever detective work by Nick, some further sherds were found from a neighbouring context.

Then I began to assemble it all, matching the larger pieces at first with the incised lines, very neatly created, all perfect, with little evidence of the maker – no finger prints or marks, other than the ones intended.

As the pieces began to fit together a pattern started to emerge, much more complex than originally thought. At this point Jan and I began having regular discussions about the manufacture of the pot, what the pattern could possibly be like and how we can accumulate evidence based on our findings.

Then it got mathematical, we needed the base and rim diameters, the degree of the splayed wall and the height. After I got all the measurements, sometimes with the use of AI (always checked and discussed, with others – I am not a mathematician) I went away to start designing what I thought the pattern might be, creating three versions with a few possible variations.  

The next important aspect was to consider the tool used to make the lines. Again, Jan sat with me while we chatted through the artistic element, combined with the manufacturing element. I thought a two-pronged tool with manipulation for the lines; Jan believed a three-pronged tool. I started with three-pronged tool, made by taping three pencils together and, sure enough, on the second created the zigzags, with no need for manipulation. This unlocked the whole pattern. If I’d designed the tool first, the initial drawing would have been easier.

At this point we opened Cecily’s bags of flot-recovered material and the first pieces confirmed the final layout of the pattern. There is a column of dots with three rhomboids displaying (I assume) three dots, which you can see in the accompanying photos and drawings.  At this moment we believe there are four sections, which form the repeat of the pattern, with three of the sections having imprinted tiny arrow-shapes all around the intersecting rhomboids, emulating some kind of movement (to my mind) as they all flow the same way.

The pattern is worked all over, from top to bottom, on thee rounded pot, with quite a splayed body and the design is definitely mathematically figured out to fill its given space, equally, all the way around. It’s another mathematical element to the project and we now reckon we need to create a replica of the pot!

Is it my imagination or am I seeing a net on water, with the rhomboids the net, the tiny arrows showing the net moving before us?