Worked-stone specialist’s welcome return to the Ness

We were delighted to welcome our worked-stone specialist, Ann Clarke, back to Ness HQ this week.

“Worked stone” is the category of finds that includes all stone that has been fashioned into a tool, e.g. axes, hammers, Skaill knives and pillow stones, or used in a process such as grinding, smoothing and polishing. It excludes roof tiles, decorated stone, structural stone and flint, which all fall within the remit of other specialists. 

During her trip north Ann is looking at the smaller stone tools as well as reviewing the larger artefacts that were too big to ship to her at the end of 2024.

These include quernstones and blocks of stone used as anvils or pollisoirs, for grinding axes/maceheads and pillow stones.

They vary in size, and weight, from reasonably portable, but bulky, to extremely heavy and almost immovable!

Aided by Nick and others, Ann has been working through the collection, piece by piece, measuring, examining and cataloguing them.  So far, the team’s backs are bearing up, but the paracetamol and hot water bottles are to hand, just in case.

The massive querstone from Structure Twelve’s eastern annexe after recovery and in situ. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

We have also been picking her brain about overall trends she has noted during her long association with the Ness’ worked stone assemblage. One factor is re-use – where are tool has acquired a number of roles over its life. Perhaps beginning as a beautifully polished axe before being used as a as a hammer or a small anvil. This gives tools complicated biographies, which are hard to unpick.

Think of a modern-day screwdriver, which has a specific function but inevitably ends up being used to open lids, stir paint or clear blocked sinks!

Ann with a pollisoir – a stone used to grind, polish and shape tools. (📷 Anne Mitchell)

We have also been discussing the worked-stone report she will produce for the Ness project’s final publication. For that Ann will need a lot more information from us about the areas of the site each artefact came from.

That will come when our worked stone GIS is finalised, along with detailed phasing of the individual tools, i.e. determining when the artefact was deposited.

Our plan is to provide all she needs within the next 12 months and Ann will then begin to write the Ness story around her specialisation.