The diggers at the end of the 2012 season of excavations. (Picture: Adam Stanford/www.aerial-cam.co.uk)

Excavations on the Neolithic site on Ness of Brodgar, in Stenness, will resume on July 15, 2013, running until August 23.

During this time, the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA) dig will be open to the public, with daily guided tours, from July 17 until August 21.

The links can be found in the links panel to the right, or alternatively visit http://kenstuart.com/orkney-2012/panos.html for a list of all the Ness of Brodgar panoramas and others from Ken’s stay in Orkney this summer.

And it’s farewell from us all, till next year. (Picture: Adam Stanford/www.aerial-cam.co.uk)

Well, it had to come. This is the last daily diary of the 2012 excavation season at the Ness.

We could expand at great length on all we have doing, and at the end of this diary we will give you a little flavour of what happened today. But our primary purpose today is to thank all the people who have made this stunning season at the Ness such an unbridled success.

Our warmest thanks go to Orkney Islands Council, for their continued support and their realisation of the vital importance of the Ness, and archaeology generally, to the Orkney economy, and to Orkney Heritage Society for the use of the house at Lochview. Having enjoyed its facilities we really don’t know how we coped before with just a collection of huts.

Structure Twelve as viewed from Andre’s helicopter.

We thank Orkney Archaeology Society, especially the volunteers who manned the shop; The University of the Highlands and Islands, Orkney College; the Royal Archaeological Institute; the Robert Kiln Trust; the Russell Trust; Visit Scotland; Historic Scotland, especially Adrian Stanger and his Orkney-based work squad; Andante Travel; the ever-present and delightful Sandra, Elaine and Keith, Historic Scotland Rangers; Helen Woodsford Dean; Currie Brothers, Orkney, and all the friends around the world who continue to support, encourage and help in so many ways. Thank you all.

Moving on site, Nick Card, site director, wishes to thank supervisors Hugo, Dan, Jim, Dave R., Martin, Dave M., Sarah, Mike and Claire for their sterling work in often difficult conditions.

Sarah and Woody prepare the massive pot base for lifting.

Also big thanks to Roy Towers, resident pot specialist and tour guide; Martha Johnson resident geologist and finds worker; Neil and Rosemary McCance for their amazing work with millions of finds bags (without them the dig wouldn’t go ahead); Professor Scott Pike and the contingent from Willamette; Christopher Gee for weekend tours; Tom Muir for organising the Kirkwall Museum exhibition; Sigurd Towrie for hosting us on the Orkneyjar website; Professor Mark Edmonds; all in the finds hut, including Scott, Sam, Babette and, especially finds officer Anne; Cecily Webster for behind the scenes flotation of samples (no, she is not learning to swim); and Nicki MacRae, our artist in residence, and to all our volunteers from around the globe.

The most special thanks go to Ola and Arnie Tait who, with the utmost good nature and generosity, have allowed us to dig in this field for so many years. In fact, we simply can’t thank them enough, and we also remember Carol Hoey and her generosity to us when she lived at Lochview. Also to Dr Jane Downes, head of the Department of Archaeology at UHI and to Julie Gibson, Orkney County Archaeologist, for their continuing support and encouragement.

Lastly, and by no means least, we want to thank all of the thousands of visitors who found their way to the Ness this year, and to the thousands more who follow us every day on the diary and from right around the world. Keep in touch.

And now, the merest flavour of archaeology from today.

We mentioned yesterday the large pot base from the central midden which Sarah and Woody have been working on. Today, it was lifted by them, with support from Owain (on his honeymoon!) and Roy.

Against all expectations, it came out in one piece — which is a considerable achievement and makes a fitting and encouraging end to the digging this season.

Rangers Sandra and Keith explain the wonders of the Ness to Stenness Primary School.

To cheer us all up, we were visited by the children of Stenness Primary School. On the very first day of the new term, the entire school were taken round the site by Sandra (an annual event now). Their delight and interest at what they saw was infectious and lifted the spirits of those facing last-week blues.

And so the task of backfilling commences as slowly the site will disappear under a sea of polythene, sandbags and stone for another year.  If you still haven’t visited the site tomorrow (Wednesday) will be your last chance to be amazed by the Ness – do visit!

And, absolutely last, if anyone is interested in getting involved in the dig or supporting it (see donations page) they can get in touch with Nick at Orkney College.

Bye for now.

Another view from the finds hut

Mick finshes his plan of he newly revealed passage between Structures One and Eleven.

Hello, my name is Sam and I work for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Liverpool.

I came to the Ness three years ago and returned this year to assist with the finds processing. I have a passion for archaeological finds and it has been a privilege to work on all the amazing objects that have been discovered on the Ness this season.

One major change at the site since I was last here was the amount of visitors and press coverage!

I was on site for two weeks and in that time I was interviewed by National Geographic, photographed by a photographer for UHI, the editor of British Archaeology arrived on site, and a reporter for The Observer was strolling around, not to mention the three times a day site tours! But I digress…

Anne, the finds officer, has been in charge of finds from the Ness since excavations began, and the day to day work in the finds hut is sometimes a little overlooked when everybody is outside digging. So here I will try and give you a sneak peak behind the scenes…

Each year, the Ness site always throws up a lot of finds, ranging from Grooved Ware pottery, animal bone, daub, cramp (burnt animal fat), stone tools and incised stones. Each context on site is given its own finds tray, and the finds are separated into general finds and small finds, which are given individual finds numbers. This year we recorded the 15,000th small find, which gives you an indication of how much material is found!

The main issues when dealing with finds are firstly processing the sheer number of objects, but also having to battle with the Orcadian weather! There were two days in the last two weeks where the site was a complete washout and all the diggers were sent home. But this was a blessing in disguise for our small team in the finds hut as it gave us a chance to catch up with the material!

When something is brought into the finds hut, the first thing we have to do is get the objects dry. This can take a long time, especially when the sun isn’t shining and there’s a gale blowing, which happens quite frequently at the Ness!

When I was last on the site, in 2009, the site threw up buckets and buckets of animal bone from Structure Ten, and I spent the best part of two weeks drying, cleaning and bagging it all.

This year, the majority of material coming up seemed to be Grooved Ware pottery, which actually takes longer to process as it comes out of the ground extremely wet and extremely fragile. If you consider that these Neolithic pots have been sitting under the ground for over 4,000 years, it is not surprising how crumbly and delicate the pieces are.

One day last week a large concentration of pottery was discovered on the west side of the trench and I helped to excavate it. We lifted it with a large amount of soil to give the pottery support, and used bandages to support the edges before lifting it into a container to be taken for further conservation and analysis by ORCA.

But most of my time has been taken up very carefully cleaning the pottery with dry brushes and tooth picks, wrapping each piece in acid free tissue paper, and bagging and boxing them to be catalogued and processed. We are always racing against the clock to process finds in time, and the key is to work methodically and with common sense; after all we are trying to protect and box these objects away so hopefully they will last another 4,000 years!

Well, I hope that gives you a little insight into what happens with finds at the Ness. It may seem a little tedious at first, but it is incredibly rewarding work!

I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the amazing work Anne, the finds officer, does on the site. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and patience to deal with the thousands of objects that are discovered on the site each year, while also dealing with the many distractions and questions and training sessions that take place; Anne is certainly a great asset to the team.

I’ve loved every minute I’ve spent at the Ness this year and can’t wait to come back in the future. Bye for now!

Into the last week…

Aerial view of Structure Fourteen, taken from Andre’s helicopter.

If the morning was bright and breezy, the afternoon brought a pall of cloud which hung over the site and reflected, to some degree, the mood of those below.

The Ness has been such a humming, buzzing hive of activity and noise for so many weeks that, to see the workforce reduced, the departure of the Willamettes and the appearance in force of the planning frames, has brought home the realisation that the end is near, for this year at least.

The digging has continued in some areas and visitors have continued to flock to see the site, many of them unaware that this is the last week.

Some of them have been genuinely distressed that a friend/relative who will be coming at the weekend/next week will now miss the chance to see the site.

And yet more planning in Structure Ten.

Among our visitors in the afternoon was a party of local dignitaries including our MSP, Liam McArthur, sundry councillors and officials from various Orkney Islands Council departments etc, and the members of the Orkney Heritage Society.

Dr Jane Downes, head of the archaeology department at UHI and Nick gave them all a lengthy, and highly informative, tour of the site before presenting them with copies of articles in distinguished journals featuring the Ness.

It was clear from their expressions and comments that many were fascinated by the site, and in some cases downright surprised because they had not realised the extent of the archaeology present here.

Hopefully, this will result in continued support for the Ness from the council and other supporters.

Andy removes the last of the bone spread in his section across the outer pavement around Structure Ten.

One message that we hope they will take away from their visit is the extraordinary boost to Orkney’s image internationally which publicity about the site has brought.

Not to mention the hordes of tourists who have visited us (can you believe our 1,200 visitors on Open Day?) and the benefit to the local economy from all these visitors. Archaeology is now big business in Orkney.

From big business to big pot . . .

In the central midden, Sarah is excavating a very large pot base, which is tilted at an angle in the midden.

It will certainly not come out in one piece but can, perhaps, be taken out in a block, or perhaps wrapped securely in bandages (see Scott below), before being lifted. It is a wonderful piece of pot and fingers will be crossed tomorrow morning for the lifting.

A view from the trenches finds hut

Planning continues in Structure Fourteen.

My name is Scott Forsyth. I’m currently studying for a masters in material culture and artefact studies at the University of Glasgow and I’ve spent the last five weeks on the Ness as an assistant in the finds hut to aid me in my studies.

The first thing you have to get used to is constant interruptions. The finds hut is usually a hub of activity for diggers looking for labels, string, trays, boxes, opinions, glances at beauteous objects and (whisper it) small finds bags…

The second thing you have to get used to in the finds hut are the “jokes” that sitting in a hut most of your day invites: “You must be knackered after looking at all that pot.” is a common one, and although takes a certain level of diplomacy to laugh and pretend it’s the first time you’ve heard it, we endure…

Neither of these things bother us too much though, as they are part of the best thing about the finds hut, as well the Ness as a whole, the community that surrounds it.

Working here means you’re guaranteed to get a chance to speak to everyone on the dig and a fair few of our more curious visitors too.

Planning in Structure Twelve.

A special thank-you to the morbidly minded individual who wanted to know the ins and outs of the possibly ritualistic animal slaughters here, to which I could only muster the cop out response of: “the past is full of mysteries, and that is one of them.”

My average day consists of cataloging finds, laying out new finds to dry and then packing away finds once they are dry.

Almost everything on this site will benefit from being dried after it has been taken out the ground, as once clean it’s easier to study decoration on pieces of pottery, to see incised lines on stones, or to see patterns of use on stone tools.

On occasion, though, when larger, more intact pots are found, I get to help bandage them up and lift them out whole, keeping them in as good a condition as possible for sending off to conservation.

For me personally the best part of working in the finds hut has been the familiarity that handling the finds every day builds up, it’s the kind of experience that could not be replicated by only looking at pictures or seeing objects in museums. And whenever I do have a question relating to rock morphology or how a piece of flint was worked, we have experts on site to answer them.

I’ve learned a lot these five weeks and it’s thanks to Nick, Ann, and the massive group of people who contribute their time to the Ness, so this is a good opportunity to say, thank you!

Two of the carefully orchestrated tours.

We guess from the number of visitors we have attracted today that all of you reading this blog saw at first hand the excavations today!

After a less than promising start, with drizzle, the sun came out, as did the visitors to our Open Day – over 1,200 and still counting!

We thought that we did exceedingly well last year, but this year we have almost doubled last year’s figure – amazing the power of the media.

At times, we had up to four simultaneous tours under way in order to cope with demand.

Added to the visitor figures for the rest of this season we have now topped 7,000 over the last five weeks, which indeed makes the Ness one of the star attractions for tourists to Orkney.

The Open Day, however, did not detract from work as usual.

Final clean for Structure Fourteen.

Making the most of the sunshine, Structure Fourteen was cleaned for final photographs. Overhead shots from every angle, using Hugo’s pole, will provide an excellent record.  These shots Hugo also intends to stitch together to produce a 3D image of this building.

In Structure Ten, Mike is hoping to emulate Jan and Claire’s discovery last week by revealing the original, internal south-west corner under the robbing debris. Will he discover another huge foundation slab? Watch this space . . .

Planning was also the order of the day as we race to finish final plans of several structures before starting to cover the site – let’s hope that the weather holds good for this less glamorous side of archaeology as we move several thousand sandbags back into position and cover the site with several layers of protective membrane before placing several thousand stones on the sheeting – any volunteers?

A view from the trenches

Final planning in Structure Twelve gets under way.

Hi there. My name is Simon Gray and I’ve travelled up from Ipswich, in Suffolk, where I’m told the weather today is as glorious as it is here in Stenness (eventually).

After spending the last three hundred and forty something days wishing I was here, I’m very pleased to be volunteering here at the Ness for my third year on the trot and am happy to be part of the team revealing and recording yet more of this incredible site.

After a nervy start to the morning, with a “light Orcadian shower” perplexing and frustrating us all, I am pleased to report the sun is well and truly out (as are my legs — I’m aiming for at least one wolf whistle by the end of the day) and it’s a beautiful day with barely any wind and glorious sunshine for all.

Simon reveals his legs!

As I write, I can see crowds of people, local and otherwise, enjoying the tours being provided by the Historic Scotland rangers, students of Orkney College, and other volunteers, as well as Nick himself, taking in as much as can be taken in given the complexity and wealth of information there is to learn about the Ness.

It’s always nice to see so much interest, although not surprising, I’m sure it will continue for years to come.

My day so far has been spent planning the walls and the annexe of Structure Twelve, which I am working in for the first time since I was part of the task force that extended the trench outwards to reveal the south wall in 2010.

As I’ve been working it has been a pleasure to speak to members of the public about the site and to answer their questions as well as to listen to the tours and find out things I didn’t know myself.

There is so much to learn about the archaeology and on daily basis theories about the structures’ uses and purposes emerge and dissipate which I find fascinating.

I certainly don’t envy those charged with the site’s publication in years to come, especially Dan who is, unfortunately for him, a Watford supporter (not that I have much to brag about after seeing my beloved Norwich City thumped yesterday afternoon in the football).

There is a very relaxed atmosphere here today and I for one am enjoying not only the “shorts and t-shirt” weather but the jovial and friendly buzz around the Ness as is always the case.

So that’s all from me. I hope to be able to come back next year and do the same all over again.

A damp start to the day.

With just a week left on site, and a good deal of that time to be taken up with planning and, eventually, the covering over of the site for winter, there has been an opportunity for site director Nick to gather some of his thoughts and to have an initial reflection on what has been achieved.

Two of his aims at the start of the season centred on Structures Ten and Fourteen.

In Ten, he had thought that the current Second Phase cruciform shape of the interior would not be a reflection of the Phase One interior. This has proved to be correct.

By following the robber cut feature in the north-east corner, Jan and Claire have shown that the almost square form of the Phase One interior had beautifully rounded corners, exactly as predicted and paralleling the very special Structure Eight at Barnhouse. In fact, they have turned out be like the north-west corner, where a very large slab (perhaps of standing stone) defines that corner.

In the north-east corner they have found two massive stone slabs, probably inserted in an attempt to counter the subsidence noted in other areas of the site. If that was the intention, it has failed. Both of the slabs have themselves tilted to a jaunty angle.

Elsewhere in Ten, the removal of the north dresser is complete, without the discovery of more axes, and Sarah is beginning the large and laborious task of planning the north end, complete with its many levels.

Dan and his team conduct magnetic susceptibility survey across Structure One.

One of Nick’s other aims was to secure a plan for Structure Fourteen.

Substantial stone robbing has removed large sections of the structure wall, but the wall line can be traced by the remaining stones and the floor deposits, as we mentioned yesterday, are intact.

By yesterday afternoon, it was clear that, following the excitement of the previous day’s stone axe find, the work of removing the remaining midden and rubble was nearly complete.

A complete plan of the structure, right across the floor, is now certain, meaning that the objectives for that structure have now been reached.

More science was being thrown at Structure One in the form of Dan with magnetic susceptibility surveying of the second major phase floor, and, in Structure Twelve, a push is on to complete the cleaning for a major photo shoot and yet more planning.

In Structure Eight, Jordan has finished taken his 123 XRF samples from the floor and is now completing the task of logging all the sample points by GPS. The results of this survey will be fascinating.

Remember, we are not digging on Friday and Sunday is our Open Day from 11am to 4pm with a continuous round of tours. All welcome.

A view from the trenches

Removal of the central baulk across Structure Fourteen reveals the rest of the second hearth.

My name is Nicki MacRae. I am an artist (you can find my work at www.nicki-paints.co.uk) based in Easter Ross, Highlands of Scotland, and I have been delighted to be allowed access to the Ness of Brodgar excavations, this year, to study the site and the people involved in the project. I hope from sketches, paintings, photographs and film to produce an interesting body of work.

I spent some time on site at the very start of the dig, and have returned, today, for the final week.

It’s been really interesting seeing just what has changed on site in the two-and-a-half weeks since I was last here. In some areas the ground level has dropped considerably, in others the patterns of stone and earth have shifted in ways my untrained eye can detect but not fully understand. I was lucky enough to get a peek at some of the amazing finds that have come out in recent days – beautiful objects! I’ve been able to say hello again to some familiar faces, whilst others are new.

As always, the Orkney weather is showing it’s many faces.

In the past, I have been known for my paintings of monumental landscapes, especially standing stones and stone circles.

Over the last year or so, however, my work has become increasingly concerned with what lies under the ground as well as above, and I’m interested in exploring modern archaeological practice.

Jordan records the positions of all his XRF samples in Structure Eight.

For me, spending a concentrated time at the Ness of Brodgar site means spreading my attention between the people, the visitors, the finds, the ancient decoration and art, as well as the “landscape” of the site itself.

I’m quite interested in what I call “intended patterns” (inscribed stones for example) and “unintentional patterns” (such as the way a spread of stones appear, perhaps the top of a wall or a floor surface, as they are uncovered from the earth).

When I first arrived on site, I was unexpectedly taken with the diggers themselves, the body shapes people throw when excavating or planning – knees at ears, feet under bottoms, curved backs with hidden heads…. I’m not usually a figurative artist, so this was an interesting and different direction for work.

Today, I’ve been taking macro shots of some of the more recently found incised stones -  lattice patterns, delicate waving lines and peck marks.

Back at the studio I’ve just begun the job of creating some abstract paintings using some of the common motifs. I’ve been trying to record some of the sounds of the site today too, although I’m not sure if the kit I have with me is quite up to the job with the ever present wind!

I’ve been working on a piece of sculpture which I plan at some point to install on site and photograph, but I admit just now I’m suffering a little stage fright, so I’ll need to see if I’m brave enough to bring this 2m high structure out of the boot of the car, where I’ve just about managed to wedge it!

I must say everyone at the site has been amazingly welcoming, and very patient with my peering over their shoulder for a picture, or painting their bottom in the air as they dig. Everyone is so keen to share knowledge.

They will, however, get the last laugh as I’ve just volunteered to help with the sandbags and covering of the site next week – they can watch me sweat for a change!

Close up of the exquisite polished stone axe.

Is it a macehead or an axe – Jo initially discovers the axe.

First of all, confession.

We confess, here and now, in the presence of thousands of readers of the diary, out there in the archaeosphere, that we have regularly used superlatives in the description of artefacts found at the Ness.

Now, the slide back into sin.

We are going to do it again.

Quite the most beautiful polished stone axe any of us have ever seen has emerged from Structure Fourteen.

It is a magnificently coloured, metamorphic rock, bluey-black as a background, interleaved with puffy white clouds of quartz. Looking at it is like lying on your back gazing at a summer sky.

Okay, we’ll stop it now, but it was worth every little adjectival flourish.

Jo, from Willamette, found it lying on the floor of the structure, just opposite the side entrance.

Two weeks ago, she found a magnificent piece of Grooved Ware pot and site director, Nick, told her it would be the best find of her digging career.

Jo finally reveals it full extent – it is an axe!.

Well, we know site directors are rarely wrong, but in this case he bottomed out in style.

Just look at the above photograph and marvel. It has now been removed from site to a place of extreme safety, guarded by dragons.

Elsewhere in Structure Fourteen (Hugo and Jim have had a busy day), a secondary hearth turned up in the north-east of the structure.

Further investigation of the extensive stone robbing of the north-west wall shows that there are enough basal stones remaining to clearly show the wall-line.

In addition, it is clear that most of the floor deposits are also intact, which is great news.

Wows all round as Jo triumphantly lifts the axe.

In the central midden area, Dave R. and his team are removing the remaining rubble layer and coming down on to many stone roof tiles in the south end of Structure Eight.

It cannot be stressed enough how magnificent a find these tiles represent, but, as those who removed them slowly and painstakingly from the other end of the structure in 2010 and 2011 know, they are not fun to excavate.

It is, however, good to know that they are there and that it is possible that the whole of the roof is still represented inside the building.

In Structure Ten, Sarah is carefully deconstructing (fancy word for taking apart) the remains of the west dresser and not finding any more stone axes.

However, Mike, who is similarly deconstructing the north dresser, is hopeful that here too some votive offering may lie hidden under the dresser. Claire and Jan are continuing to confirm the square form with rounded corners of the earlier phase of the structure by following the robber trench.

In Structure Twelve, the floor plan is not far away now and it is almost time for a major phase of planning of the interior of the building.

Distinguished visitors today include Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, and Robin McKie, who has written for The Observer newspaper on archaeology for many years and who, we hope, may produce a colour feature in The Observer magazine in future weeks.

Here is an early alert.

We won’t be digging on Friday, although tours will continue, but everybody will be present on Sunday for our open day (11am to 4pm, with a continuous round of tours). We will be deeply insulted if you don’t all come.

A view from the trenches

Mike dismantles the northern dresser in Structure Ten.

My name is Garnet Kwader and I am here with the group of students from Willamette University, in Salem, Oregon.

I have spent two years in university studying biology, but when I transferred to WU, at the beginning of last semester, I discovered that Willamette had an archaeology major.

I have been fascinated by archaeology since I was very young, but it never seemed like an attainable goal—to me it was always something really neat that other people got to do.

I needed more information and finally I was in a position to find it.

I went to Scott Pike, one of the archaeology professors at Willamette.

Kelsey reveals the second hearth in Structure Fourteen.

He told me about the archaeology program at WU, and gave me a brief run-down of job opportunities in the field.

He also mentioned the Ness of Brodgar and explained that some students from Willamette were going to excavate there for four weeks this summer. It sounded too good to be true.

After a week of stressful deliberation, I decided to throw caution to the wind and delve head-first into the world of archaeology.

I changed my major to archaeology, with my biology serving as a minor, and I signed up for the summer field school at the Ness of Brodgar. Now here I am.

I was terrified to come for fear of arriving and realising that archaeology was really great in books, but awful in reality. Fortunately, this is not the case.

In the past four weeks of trowelling, brushing, cleaning, drawing, planning, sampling, finding, and trowelling some more, I still have not found a task I dislike.

Whenever I learn a new skill, it becomes my favorite.

The director and supervisors are incredibly knowledgeable and always willing to help, as are the more experienced students and volunteers. I have learned more about archaeology in the past four weeks than I ever could have imagined and I hope to be able to return next year and discover some new favorite tasks.

My experience here at the Ness of Brodgar has been a wonderful start to my archaeology career, and it has assured me that archaeology is every bit as fascinating in person as it is on paper.

Overview of the Ness of Brodgar excavation site, looking towards the Stones of Stenness. (Picture: Adam Stanford/www.aerial-cam.co.uk)

The weather has been an ever-present element in the diary this year, and for good reason.

Working out-of-doors quickly brings the realisation that it is absolutely vital to what you do. Not just in the matter of comfort, but also in efficiency and in working safely.

After the torrential rain of much of today, it became clear that the site is just not safe enough to work on. The surfaces, and in particular the stones, were slippy and the thought of trowelling wet, clayey soil, was intolerable.

Material of that sort sticks to your trowel like glue and the sight of smeared stones and marked soil surfaces is enough to make the average site supervisor despair.

Anyway, enough is enough. We have called it a day.

Some activities continued for a time, like the teaching mentioned below, and in the house, pottery, stone and bone work were relatively unaffected. Anne, Sam and Scott continued to man the finds huts and to grapple with the huge amount of material which has been found. And in this diary we have also assembled some nice examples of Adam’s high-resolution photographs on site.

Amazingly, our faithful visitors continued to arrive and were shown around in the brief intervals of half-decent weather but by the middle of the afternoon everything was closing in again.

The weather forecast remains poor but we will be back in the morning and, hopefully, will have much more to tell you about this amazing site.

Structure Ten, looking west. (Picture: Adam Stanford/www.aerial-cam.co.uk)

A view from the trenches

Hi all! My name is Julia and I’m an archaeology major from Willamette University.

It’s hard to believe that our field school team has been excavating here for more than three weeks now!  We have all learned so much and found many interesting artefacts (both pot and not).

As I am writing this, the rain is pouring down and Nick has declared an early teabreak to see if the downpour lets up or whether we will have to abandon site.

Our Willamette professor, who is leading our field school group, has taken this opportunity to gather our group in the shed and teach us about Simple Harris Matrix.  For our school, we have to fulfill a number of requirements and get them signed off by our supervisors on site.  We have to complete certain tasks on site, like using the GPS to map out small finds or recognising different layers in the soil and filling out context sheets for the areas we work in.

The supervisors are a great help and with only a few days left we have all made tremendous progress on some of the different technology and paperwork that makes excavating worthwhile and lucrative.

Our time in Orkney has been well spent, these islands are absolutely exploding with archaeology from all different eras and it has been more than amazing to be part of it.

Unfortunately, for today it looks like our time has run out on site. Due to the ever pleasant Orkney weather we have been on site for less than an hour.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring drier weather, knock on …um …stone.

Structure Twelve, looking west. (Picture: Adam Stanford/www.aerial-cam.co.uk)

STOP PRESS

Neralie reveals the new polished stone slab in Structure Fourteen.

While removing the rubble near the end of the central east pier in Structure Fourteen, Neralie discovered another star find in the closing hour of today. 

A beautifully polished stone slab, similar to a red one discovered in Structure Eight last year, has been revealed – but this is not all as it sits on a small, but sadly broken, incised stone slab.  Rather than leave it in situ overnight, the new find was quickly photographed, recorded and planned before being safely removed. 

If anyone at the Ness wanted to know what really characterises Orkney weather, today was the day to find out.

The wind blew, and blew, and then blew harder.

Paradoxically, it wasn’t too bad in the trenches. Hunkered down on your knees, a good deal of the force of the wind whistles above your head. Up on the viewing platform with the visitors was quite a different matter.

The wind caught words and whirled them away like scattered sand northwards but, to their credit, visitors stuck it out, even if the knuckles clutching the scaffolding poles looked a little white at times.

Back at trench level, the archaeology was sparkling as usual.

Sarah with her fine polished stone axe discovered under the west dresser of Structure Ten.

In Structure Ten, Sarah had been cautiously dismantling the west “dresser” but, just as the weather began to worsen, she found the most beautiful polished stone axe tucked into the foundation material.

It is black and very shiny and appears to be a form of granite, possibly Labradorite, which is not usually used for making axes.

Professor Mark Edmonds explained that it had been originally longer but had broken and had then been turned around and a new cutting edge had been worked.

It is a well-used tool and had clearly been someone’s favourite implement for a long time before being carefully and deliberately deposited under the dresser.

There is a degree of unhappiness with the term “dresser”, which is really more of a signifier than a description of use, but this discovery enhances the esoteric nature of their presence in Structure Ten. Sarah, needless to say, is ecstatic and describes it as her best find, ever.

Elsewhere in Structure Ten, work continued in following the robber trench and the indications now are that Nick’s suggestion of an original square form for the interior of the structure are correct.

Emily displays the fine polished stone spatula from the levelling deposits under Structure Seven.

One of the distinguished visitors on site today was Professor Taniguchi from Tokyo University.

Professor Taniguchi is taking a few days from his sabbatical year at UCL to visit Orkney and the Ness.

He is famous for being the finder of the world’s oldest piece of pottery, from the Jomon period in Japan, and will give a talk on Jomon pottery at the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, tomorrow, Tuesday, August 14, at 7.30.

The word “Jomon” means something like “cord marked” and is descriptive of the pottery decoration. It is fascinating stuff and everyone is welcome.

Another beautiful find came from below Structure Seven, where Emily uncovered a quite superb stone spatula.

The head is spherical in shape and smooth, and the handle is missing.

To those familiar with them it looks something like a metal razor from the Iron Age, but this little implement may well have been used for smoothing and shaping something soft and plastic, such as clay vessels.

Elsewhere, in Structure Fourteen the removal of the rubble deposit sealing the floor is progressing, showing more evidence of the internal furnishings including threshold stones and orthostats.

Seb investigates the NW recess of Structure Twelve.

In Structure Twelve, Seb is investigating the interesting north-west recess adjacent to the north wall, which may be a blocked-up entrance.

The ashy dumps sealing the original floor are also being removed and the possibly multiple phases of remodelling of the curious north wall are also becoming clearer.

In Structure Eight, Dave has been conducting a photo session on the rubble infill and, hopefully, may soon come down on the tile horizon.

The Willamettes are being introduced to the beauties of geophysics, which will give them endless hours of fun. The area being covered by refined resistivity should illuminate the nature of the entrance through the Great Wall of Brodgar.

The weather forecast for Tuesday is appalling and not much better for the rest of the week, so fingers crossed for our beautiful site.

A view from the trenches

Hi folks,

My name is Martin.

New painted stone discovered by Andre last week.

My role is to help the students of all types with their time on site.  This student group includes the MA students of Orkney College UHI, the BA archaeology students of UHI and I’m also liaising continually with Prof Scott to assist the US students who are here through the Willamette University field school.

I seem to rove around the site endlessly moving from one person to another, generally trying to ensure that the students are taking and receiving opportunities to get a wide range of experiences that will stand them in good stead in future projects and their careers to come!

One thing that I therefore get to notice while I’m on site is just how incredibly receptive both the students and the site supervisors are with the idea of fulfilling this educational remit.  For one thing it makes my job very easy when all of the staff on site seem to readily appreciate the value and importance of the presence of the students whilst the students themselves are incredibly committed, hard-working, and perhaps most importantly: very thoughtful as regards their part in the whole excavation process.

Of course, this is partly an outcome of just how fantastic the site is.

Mary Saunders, of ORCA Geophysics, explains the resistance equipment to some of the Willamette students.

We have endless opportunities to give students plenty of experience in some amazing prehistoric contexts and situations.  This seems quite marvellous and surprising to some of the students to begin with and more than once I’ve heard the refrain “you mean you’re letting me dig this right now?(!)” — usually in relation to some beautifully decorated grooved ware pottery vessel that has appeared.

Yes we do let them and, even if it is with good close supervision at times, it’s nevertheless true that the only way to learn field archaeology is to get stuck in and deal with “the real stuff”!  And when it comes to the good stuff it’s just amazing having this site, this resource, available to the students, especially the beginners amongst the undergrads’ to cut their teeth on.  Even the more experienced diggers amongst the postgraduate students are frequently still “gobsmacked” by the richness and substance of the Ness of Brodgar.

I’ll sign off now but having spoken just now of the students and the enjoyment that they seem to find in the excavation experience, I would like to take the opportunity to warmly invite any readers of this blog who may be interested in studying archaeology in a more formal capacity with us at Orkney College UHI and across the UHI generally, to contact myself or one of my colleagues on the archaeology staff to discuss things.

Martin Carruthers,
Lecturer in Archaeology, Orkney College, UHI
(martin.carruthers@orkney.uhi.ac.uk)

It is wonderful to see the expression on visitors’ faces when you explain that the later Neolithic folk who built the Ness delighted in colour — on the pottery, their walls and probably on themselves.

Colour is such an integral part of our own lives that we take it for granted. With a palette of colours limited by the materials which could be exploited then, colour was probably even more important and vibrant in the Neolithic than we can imagine.

Heads down in Structure Twelve as Dave and team get to grips with the primary infill deposits.

Today, another “painted” stone turned up. Andre found, face down within rubble, while digging just outside Structure One.

It is a very distinctive red and, in year’s past, we would have had to remove it carefully, parcel it up and send it south for analysis. Now, thanks to Professor Scott Pike of Willamette University, Oregon, we can analyse it straight away on site. Using his portable XRF machine (X-ray fluorescence spectrometry)

Scott obtains a reading of the chemical components of whatever material he is targeting. This is then processed through a laptop programme to give a reading of the chemical elements present.

Scott could tell instantly that the red material is composed almost entirely of iron, which is almost certainly haematite, an iron ore found in Orkney.

He also confirmed that the colour had been applied to the surface. Although this is the result we would have hope for, it is tremendous to have it confirmed, and so quickly.

From the ashy deposits in the area of the robber cut in Structure Fourteen came a cache of burnt flint and a quartzite flake which appears to have been polished and which may have been a tool used to polish stone axes. More on this next week.

Work on Structure Fourteen is progressing quickly and it now appears possible that the full anticipated plan of the structure will become clear soon, and make sense.

Andi doing a photo shoot for the UHI photographer Tim in Structure One.

Over the last couple of days, as if we didn’t have enough photographers on site, we were also joined by Tim, who has been commissioned by the UHI to capture some images for their website and promotional leaflets.

Some great shots were taken and will no doubt attract even more students to study archaeology in this archaeological Mecca!

Dave is still dealing with the complexities and frustrations of the central midden, but more wall lines are beginning to emerge.

There is a possibility, however, that they will not align with Structure Eight which, if proved, will create more headaches. Are they the remnants of yet more earlier structures under Structure Eight or yet more idiosyncrasies relating to Structure Eight itself?

In Structure Ten, Mark is investigating part of the south-west stone buttress to see if the original wall lies behind, while the robber cut that had removed much of the internal wall face is being chased in the north-eastern corner.

In Structure Twelve, Dave’s problems continue with a hint — just a hint — that there is a blocked up entrance to the structure on the north-west corner. More on that to come.

We’ll close now. After all, it’s Friday.

Have a good weekend.

A view from the trenches

All go in the central midden area in the south end of Structure Eight.

My name is Jon Rhoderick.

I am part of the Willamette University team on site this season and, like many others here, this is my first experience in the archaeological field.

I chose this course as my last college class and had no idea what to expect.  I come from an anthropological background, but none of my studies revolved around ancient societies so I saw this site as an ideal place to get a hands-on experience that I yearned for many hours in the Willamette Library.

We started off the course with a trip to Skara Brae, but even that didn’t prepare me for the size of the excavation at Ness of Brodgar.

When I started I had almost no idea what I was doing, but the supervisors have done an excellent job of slowly incorporating more skills we could use on site.

I’ve spent my entire three weeks, so far, in the central midden area between Structures Eight, Ten, Elven and Twelve.

Jan and Claire reveal more of the robber cut of the north-western corner of Structure Ten.

Originally, I thought that the first-year excavators were being placed outside of the structures and into this area because it was relatively hard to make mistakes but, as we excavated layer by layer, we started finding large fragments of pottery that suggested we were digging was not just an ancient rubbish heap but a place where regular daily activities were occurring.

It’s exciting to learn more each week and gain more responsibilities.

Last week, I had plenty of trouble removing even small pottery shards but early this week I was lucky to extract a piece larger than my hand in one cohesive piece.

Unfortunately for me, I could only view the interior of the pot, but I am quite sure that whoever cleans the exterior portion will see artwork and patterns that haven’t seen light in thousands of years.

The next day I helped Nick extract an impressive pot that was almost entirely intact.  It’s difficult to explain the tension that you feel when removing a delicate pot that you and your friends have worked on for two weeks, but it’s certainly easier if the pot is completely bandaged like a mummy so you can’t see any more cracks appear!

Usually my time off has been taken up by watching the Olympics and sleeping, but this weekend I have a unique opportunity for my main passion in life — rock climbing.

I’ve found a climbing partner who wants to climb the Old Man of Hoy, one of the most famous sea stacks in Britain and the most iconic climb of the Orkney Islands.

We’ve already decided I’m leading the hardest pitch, which makes me a bit nervous but, just like excavating here at the Ness of Brodgar, the Old Man of Hoy is a once in a lifetime experience and I can’t wait to get after it.

The finds hut on the Ness is a small, wooden hut, containing finds supervisor Anne, her assistants Scott and Sam (whom we will hear from in a future diary), and an ever-increasing array of stunning finds.

The hut is now so full that it is becoming impenetrable, in the literal sense of the word. Anne is therefore torn between intense interest in the finds and an almost audible groan of “where on earth will I put that?”

The quern from Structure Fourteen is studied, while being recorded by National Geographic’s photographer, Jim Richardson.

Today was a bad day for the finds folk in that sense — although a brilliant one for everyone else.

The biggest hut-filler came from Structure Fourteen, where a very large quern/grinding stone was taken from the west wall in which it had been incorporated.

It is a lovely piece of stone, with the oval grinding area clearly defined and taking several strong diggers to lift.

Immediately, Scott set to work with his XRF machine to see if he could identify what material had been ground on it – watch this space as the anaysis of the results is not immediate.

More stone came from Structure Eight in the form of a stone spatula, somewhat similar to the ones found at the north end of the structure, but not so finely made.

Ken cradles the polished stone ‘spatula’ from Structure Eight.

Professor Mark Edmonds emerged from Structure Ten with a stone ball, which may be a rough-out for the type of carefully carved stone balls sometimes found at other Neolithic sites, such as Skara Brae.

Site director Nick has been promising a bottle of whisky for the first person to find a stone ball, but somehow the requirements keep shifting.

A rough-out does not qualify, he says.

Some of us felt that the whalebone macehead from Structure Eight should certainly have qualified, if in a different category, but there is a general feeling abroad that the bottle of whisky will remain as elusive as the perfect stone ball seems to be.

A polished-stone chisel also came from Structure Fourteen today and the task of removing the rubble and clay from the undamaged areas of the northern part of the building is going ahead quickly.

Meanwhile, more nice Grooved Ware pottery came from the central midden area, courtesy of Libby.

At the southern end of Structure Eight, Dave is having a tough time disentangling the many dumps of rubble and midden. The nice sequence seen at the northern end of the building is not replicated at the other end and, coincidentally, the other Dave, in Structure Twelve, is having exactly the same problem as he grapples with the removal of material from the southern end of his building.

Libby reveals another fantastic spread of large, decorated Grooved Ware.

Jan and Claire are continuing to follow the robber cut in the north wall of Structure Ten, which should lead to a clear definition of the north-east corner of the building in its original phase.

Trish’s work in the passage between Structure One and Structure Nineteen (the building under Structure Seven) is beginning to hint that Nineteen’s walls may have gone through several phases of alteration.

Today, we welcomed, once more, Roff Smith of National Geographic magazine and his family. Roff is producing a lavishly illustrated article on the Ness for the magazine for possible publication next year. As the worldwide scope of National Geographic is over 40 million people, this is great news for the Ness, but also for the reputation and international profile of Orkney.

A view from the trenches

Dave and his crew unravel the midden and rubble infill of the south end of Structure Eight.

Hello! My name is Jo Heupel and I am a student at Willamette University.

I have been on the Ness of Brodgar site with the Willamette group for almost three weeks.

Over this time, I have been taught how to excavate, how to survey, how to plan and draw sections, and how to do most other activities necessary on site.

Today, I started my day out by doing some leveling. This is where we use a premeasured spot on site to determine where sea level is and do some basic maths to see how far down we have excavated in locations throughout a structure.

Later in the day, I did some planning of Structures Thirteen and Fourteen.

Planning is used to help archaeologists understand the site and structures better. This specific plan’s purpose was to record the locations of at least two revetting walls so they could be removed to see what is underneath.

The results of the kiln, fired yesterday.

Next to me a grinding stone was removed shortly after lunch. The stone was about 30 centimetres in depth, in some spots, and took quite a few people to remove.

It was an exciting removal for many of the archaeologists on site because they have been able to see the top of it for a long time, but hadn’t been able to remove it.

Overall, the Ness of Brodgar is an incredible site.

There is so much to be uncovered and so much left to learn. I really value my time working on site with my fellow students and archaeologists from all over the world. Every day is an exciting new day with new finds, new ideas, and new people.

I am forever grateful of the opportunity to be working and learning on site and suggest that anyone considering visiting the Ness of Brodgar should do so immediately.

The archaeology and history of Orkney is a long and interesting one, filled with beauty.

Jo Heupel

Today’s star find – a stone axe rough out.

We’ll start today with the star find – a find that caused great excitement and led to our stone tools expert, Professor Mark Edmonds, being recalled from Kirkwall Airport to give urgent advice.

Removal of the central midden over the end of Structure Eight revealed a large chunk of igneous rock, which had obviously been flaked.

It is a lovely thing, but sparked off huge interest because it looks very similar to tuff (a type of rock) from the famous Neolithic axe-making factory at Langdale Pike, in the Lake District.

Nobody knows this area better than Mark. As Nick, the site director, commented, he has probably carted away at least half of Langdale Pike for his research.

Unfortunately, he was at the airport, seeing off Professor Alisdair Whittle, of Cardiff University, who visited yesterday.

A quick text brought him rushing back, but a distinctive element within the structure of the rock convinced him that it is probably not Langdale tuff.

It is, however, just the sort of rock of which axes were made – perhaps rough out for an axe – and it will be investigated further.

As Mark commented, its presence here, as a worked piece of igneous rock, and the presence and working of other rocks, shows that Neolithic people knew a great deal more about geology than we have hitherto believed.

Meanwhile. the south end of Structure One gave up a superb, almost complete and rather delicately decorated, Grooved Ware pot.

It has been wrapped in more bandages than an Egyptian mummy, cradled in supporting material, packed carefully in a box and will now be on its way to Edinburgh for much-needed conservation work. Most our pottery from the Ness comes out of the ground in pieces, making an almost complete pot an object of great interest.

Andrew Appleby’s experimental pottery kiln helps reduce the number of midges on site.

And on the subject of pottery, the local potter, Andrew Appleby, is conducting an on-site experiment with a different kiln design from that which he used previously and is firing some of his large, replica Grooved Ware pots.

The prevailing wind direction meant that most of the site was well acquainted with the smoky firing and we await the result with interest.

In Structure Seven, Georgie has continued to slave away at her, essentially unrewarding, area of ashy spread around the hearth.

Today, however, it became a good deal more interesting. She discovered that an ashy floor surface actually goes under the walls of the structure, suggesting that the hearth was once external to any buildings, before being eventually enclosed. A similar external hearth was noted at the site of Crossiecrown, in St Ola, on the Orkney Mainland.

Georgie nears the end of the limitless ashy deposits in Structure Seven.

Just to the west of Structure Seven, the removal of the midden  uncovered the basal course of the Structure Eight west wall and in Structure Fourteen work continues in removing the sterile clay and rubble area covering the interior of the structure.

This has already enabled two entrances to be identified – one in the end and one in the side. Whether these entrances were contemporary is a question yet to be settled.

Entrances have also featured strongly in Structure One, where the sequence is becoming much clearer.

Three entrances appear to have been in use, but the side entrance is clearly part of the structure’s secondary use and has been, more-or-less, bashed straight through the wall.

The south entrance appears to have been blocked and the north entrance seems to have been simply abandoned. Again, their relationship to each other needs clarification.

Trish reveals more of the passageway between Structure One and Structure Seven.

Back in Structure Seven, Trish has also been exploring the passage which lies to one side of the building.

She has discovered that the passageway has been repaved at least twice and this is also leading to greater clarification of the sequence in this area of the site.

In Structure Ten, the cleaning and photography has taken place and the team are clearing back material to see more of the nicely defined robber cut in the north-east corner, which will be crucial to defining whether the central chamber had rounded corners in its earlier phase.

This is, essentially, robber cut chasing, as opposed to the more familiar wall chasing, but it is proving to be a fruitful approach.

In the interests of fairness and accuracy, it should be noted that Sarah is no longer in a bad mood. She says so herself. However, you know those times when people smile through slightly clenched teeth?

Final clean for photos in Structure Ten.

A view from the trenches

A warm hello to our avid readers, beloved enthusiasts, and fellow diggers,

My name is Andy, and I study archaeology at Orkney College.

Ray uncovers the basal slabs of the west wall of Structure Eight.

This is my third season on the Ness, only this year the excavation is one of my core modules. Having previously attended two field-schools (along with a smattering of volunteer work with ORCA, CUNY and Bradford UNI),  I must admit that this course has so far been stellar in comparison – but a field-school on the Ness of Brodgar, admittedly, is hard to beat.

However, it is not the sheer immensity of the site which creates such an outstanding program – rather it is the level of education and care provided by our supervisors and site director.

Students are trained in all aspects of excavation in accordance with their personal level of experience; from the basics of troweling to the more complex (and perhaps somewhat tedious) practices of planning. I highly recommend this field-school to anyone in the position to attend.

Last week, I completed the excavation and recording of a half-section in the central hearth in Structure One; following the troweled path of my friend Giles Carey, a graduate of the MA program at Orkney College.

Earlier this season, Giles excavated a burrow cut and fill that ran vertically through the south-west edge of the hearth, an instance of bioturbation caused by an unknown creature. Luckily, the majority of the deposits were spared.

In the following days, Dr Cathy Batt, from the University of Bradford, conducted archaeomagnetic sampling on the hearth (as well as the hearths in Structure Seven and Structure Eight), which will hopefully provide dates that parallel with radiocarbon samples previously taken on the Ness.

This central hearth has revealed further evidence which may support the theory that the Ness of Brodgar was perhaps something more than a domestic site — this evidence being that the layers of burning are concentrated in the center of the hearth, with perceptible “rake-outs” butting up against the hearth stones. This deviates from other Neolithic sites, whose hearths – once excavated – revealed multiple areas of burning. This suggests that the fires in those sites were perhaps quite small (which one may imagine would be suitable for cooking), whereas the hearth in Structure One might have housed a significantly larger fire.

What could the implications of this be?

Images of poignant fires with special “spiritual significance” come to mind. Yet we can only question, and attempt to answer with a story based in fact and illuminated by theory – with the ultimate “maybe” – the mystery of it all – forever entrancing and eluding our past, current and future generations of archaeological enthusiasts.

Andy Boyar
Orkney College UHI

Exposed rubble deposits in the south end of Structure Eight.

After the torrential rain of yesterday, this has been one of these calm, slightly claustrophobic days at the Ness, where the cloud is low and stationary, the water of the lochs is glistening and flat and the wind, that torturer of those from quieter climates (see below), is virtually absent.

It has made for easy digging and lots of visitors, all of whom we are delighted to see, especially as we are keen to share the delights of the Ness with as many people as possible.

We do, of course, hope that many will help us financially by putting an entirely voluntary contribution in the many gift boxes around the site.

The cost of excavation is high and times are tough for everyone, but all contributions are spent exclusively in furthering the excavation of the site.

Professors Alisdair Whittle and Mark Edmonds examine Structure One.

Thank you to all of those who have so far felt able to help us in this vital manner. Please also note that we gratefully accept online donations through the Orkney Archaeology Society.

These are also interesting times in Structure Fourteen.

Hugo, Jim and their team have uncovered what appears to be a drain running across the northern edge of the trench.

They are also realising that the structure has suffered repeated episodes of stone robbing over time, often with the scooped areas of removed material filled with simple earth.

An exciting find was made today, not far from the drain. A small flake of Arran pitchstone turned up, black and glistening with tiny white crystal embedded in its structure.

It is possibly only the sixth example of Arran pitchstone to be found on the site. It is usually found in areas to the north of the island of Arran and not at all to the south.  Sharp, but brittle, it is an intriguing find so far from its island of origin.

Strange times in and around Structure One.  The curving stone wall, which bisects the interior of the building, was assumed to end up against the interior wall of the structure. Excavation yesterday showed that it, in fact, continues through the exterior wall and out the other side. This is an unusual and unexpected development, and one which requires careful thinking before anything sensible can be said about it.

Outside the structure, further excavation has shown more walling of a small, ephemeral structure but poking out from underneath it, some very large and more rounded stones. Are these the footing stones of the structure or are they wall stones from an earlier and different building lying underneath? Time, and some hard digging, will tell.

Ranging poles are arranged for scale in Structure Twelve for photography.

Structure Twelve was cleaned for the second time in two days, thanks to the heavy rain of yesterday.

By lunchtime it was spotless and speckless and ready to be subjected to a battery of photographic techniques from every angle.

These included elevated cameras, cameras-on-a-pole, cameras on mini-helicopters, cameras on ladders and simple, ground-based, hand-held cameras.  Structure Twelve would be forgiven for thinking itself to be a celebrity.

The latest coloured pot sherd.

Analytical work carried out on the pottery from Structure Twelve has revealed another piece of coloured, decorated Grooved Ware.

This piece has an applied cordon, which has been grooved horizontally with oblique slashes on the lower part of the cordon, perhaps imitating twisted cord or rope.

The whole of the applied cordon is coloured red, probably through the use of a haematite (iron ore) wash, which stands in contrast to what is probably a black area to one side and an orangey slip to the other side. It would have been a sensational looking piece of pottery.

In Structure Ten, the slots for orthostats have been examined, the dressers are ready to be moved and Sarah has been in a bad mood. Enough said!

In the remaining midden-filled southern area of Structure Eight, Dave has removed the upper layer and has come down on to a general rubble spread which may overlay a slate horizon of the sort noted in the north end of the structure.

It will be interesting to see if the slate does, indeed, exist over the whole length of the building.

An eminent visitor yesterday was Alisdair Whittle from the University of Cardiff.

He and site director Nick have been discussing the possibility of including Ness material, including pottery, in a ground-breaking and extensive dating programme.

This could lead to a refinement of all Grooved Ware chronologies and settle many pressing questions about the Neolithic that currently vex those working with the pottery, and, indeed, with the whole period.

Once again, we were joined today by a bunch of budding young archaeologists for the Excavation Club.  This is indeed attracting attendees from far afield as evidenced by a couple from Peebles in southern Scotland, who persuaded their father to drive them up yesterday just for the dig – don’t think they were disappointed.

As this diary appears to be stretching into infinity, we will stop now and look forward to tomorrow.

Young archaeologists in the making.

A view from the trenches

Hi. I am a student from Willamette digging here at the Ness of Brodgar.

Currently, I am digging in what I believe to be Structure Fourteen. Today, I have just recently uncovered a segment of the wall, along with quite a few stones. Due to all the recent rain we have so recently received, the soil is incredibly soft, making digging both easier and yet more difficult. The work is easier due to the ease of which our trowels can scrape the soil and how readily the dirt gives way. Unfortunately the soil, almost gives way a little too easily, and often I find that I am going a little too fast. For the people working near me who have been tasked with cleaning the soil, life is made more difficult by the rain.

To “clean” the soil, one must scrape off a (thin) layer of dirt that has accumulated there since we exposed it. The cleaning process is for photography, and additionally so the supervisors can determine exactly what is in the soil and where we should dig.

Where my trowel has struck dirt and rock, is has not found pottery or flint. In fact, I have made only three finds within the last week.

While three finds may sound like a lot, at the Ness of Brodgar, it is a feeble amount to find in a day, let alone a whole week.

When I was working in a midden heap, or what could equate to a trash-dumping site, three finds per hour or two was normal, but out in Structure Fourteen the finds are few and far between. Instead of pottery, I find the rock and stone, which I am okay with, because instead of seeing intricate Grooved Ware pottery pieces, I now get to define the walls of a building. It is endlessly fascinating to me to watch as a wall emerges where there was once only dirt, and to think of the biography of that wall.

Today was one of the digger’s birthdays, and another member of her group (the Willamette group, in fact) made her an archaeological cake. The cake had multiple layers (seven at last count), and included “finds” such as pieces of butterscotch for flint, Oreos for pottery, and a candy bar which just happened to resemble burnt bone. The cake was shared with anyone who asked, and while some seemed too shy, others, supervisors in particular, seemed excited to try a slice of the delicious cake.

Structure Twelve is assaulted by a battery of photographic techniques.

Despite it being summer, we are still battling the weather here in Orkney.

Yesterday, we were rained out after lunch and today the skies are threatening, with the occasional drop landing on our necks or backs.

I must admit to being mildly surprised at the weather. While I am not surprised at the overcast skies, the amount of rain in summer time is, to me, strange. I am assured by residents, however, that compared to winter time this is nothing. And I am entirely inclined to believe them.

As I have been digging, the rain has not been the worst of the weather, but rather the wind, which moves loose dirt into cleaned section, but also into eyes. The wind also threatens to move tools around, and rip bags with small finds out of our hands.

Overall, I would have to say that I have enjoyed my time so far at the Ness of Brodgar.

I have already been here for two weeks and I am currently partway through my third week now, with one more to go after this one.

Since I have been here I have learned a lot about the artefacts and, more importantly, about their significance.

The wealth of finds we come up with each have their own story about how they got to where they are today. What fascinates me is the trend of finds to appear under rocks, which I believe form a protective layer over the artefact, keeping it safe from the ages. With all the artefacts we find, it is intriguing to think about all the ones we do not find, all the material that has melted with the ages and disappeared.

While we can no longer do anything for the lost artefacts, we still have plenty to deal with right at our fingertips.

James Fredericksen

Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Recording of sections in the new extension.

It has rained and rained on the Ness for most of the day. And not your ordinary, common-or-garden drizzle. This stuff came down in big lumps, from black clouds which refused to budge from overhead.

Down by the side of the Stenness loch, there is a sign warning of overhead line danger for fishermen carrying carbon poles.

One false move and the fishermen’s rod has connected with a great deal of electricity and both he and his fish have been fried.

In tumultuous rain, like today, there may well have been a danger of lightning strike to Adam’s enormous camera-on-a-pole.

Luckily, he decided not to risk putting it up, but various areas of the site are ready for photography, including a major photoshoot planned for Structure Twelve, which now must take place tomorrow.

Rain forces a hasty retreat from site.

The first task in the morning will be, of course, to bail out the various puddles which will have inevitably connected, and to clean various rain-sodden areas of the site back to the state of pristine freshness which normally greets us.

The detailed recording on Structure Fourteen, which took place before the rain strike yesterday, will continue tomorrow and Hugo and Jim are looking forward then to removing the remaining  burden and exposing the floor plan of the building.

Hugo was busy enough today when the rain fell relentlessly as lunch ended, giving him an ideal opportunity to demonstrate underwater flint-knapping.

An engrossed crowd gathered round him to watch his deft movements and at the end he had produced a beautiful flint tool and proved beyond doubt that flint is waterproof while flint-knappers are most decidedly not.

Mike investigates a construction cut for a robbed-out orthostat in Structure Ten.

In Structure Ten, Mike was excavating the construction slots for some robbed-out orthostats and found, in one of them, two large lumps of haematite – the iron ore which forms the basis of some of the red colouring we can see on some stones and pottery at the Ness.

We have spent some time telling folk that haematite comes from the island of Hoy, but one of the UHI Masters graduates, Chris Gee, found some on a beach on Mainland Orkney recently, and has given us all a good idea of what the colour would have looked like all those years ago in the Neolithic by smearing it on non-archaeological stone on the site.

Under ominous skies, crowds gather for the first tour of the week.

Despite the weather, visitors came by in huge numbers today, no doubt spurred by a repeat of Neil Oliver’s programme on the Ness on BBC2 yesterday.

Those who missed it will be able to see it again on BBC i-Player for the next week, although it is high time that the BBC issued it for sale as a special DVD. We know the market is there.

One of our most welcome visitors today was Ann Clark, one of the country’s most eminent lithics (stone tools) experts.

Anyone who wants to see at first hand Ann’s ability to interpret those tools should log on to www.annrocks.co.uk

New diggers have arrived on site and it is a shame that their welcome from the weather was so miserable but it will almost certainly improve tomorrow — on the grounds that it could hardly be worse than today.

A view from the trenches

Hugo demonstrates the art of flint-knapping.

Hello, all. My name is Dustin Daniel and I am one of the students here from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

I’ve been on the site now for just a bit over two weeks and today is the first day that we have really had any issues with the weather.

We’re currently in the middle of an extended lunchbreak while we wait for the rain to pass, but are kept entertained by Hugo’s flint knapping demonstration.

During one of our pre-departure meetings back in the United States, we were told by our supervising professor, Scott Pike, that this dig would spoil us, as we may never be on such an extraordinary dig again. How right he was. I have been told countless times by others also participating at this site, that they have never been a part of anything like this.

I have heard stories of digs from across the globe and I have yet to hear of one that has matched up to being here for just one season at the Ness of Brodgar. Whether it is the people you meet, the knowledge you gain, or the items you find while excavating, it is a truly great experience to be a part of this dig that can’t be matched.

As for the weather . . . it could be better. It looks like we’ll be closing up shop for the day. I’ll take this site, with the rain, any day.

Adam Stanford’s super pole cam is put to great use.

Today, Friday, was a day of excellent archaeology and jaw-dropping technology to assist with the site recording.

Mark, from the University of the Highlands and Islands in Kirkwall, kicked off the day by demonstrating laser-scanning to the students.

This is not necessarily the easiest of techniques, but Mark is a good teacher and everyone seemed happy with progress.

His laser images will complement the 3D work being done by Adam Stanford, which we mentioned yesterday.

Today, we had the delight of seeing Adam raise an enormous pole with a camera perched on the top. The pole, which is telescopic, usually lies along the back of his Land Rover.

To raise it, he fixes it to a vertical mount at the rear, and engages an electric motor to power the sections upwards.

It is a most impressive sight. A group of visitors were being shown round the site when he started and, to a man and a woman, they turned round to stare.

The really exciting thing was to see the photographs he produced.

Is it a bird, a plane – no it’s Andre’s new helicopter.

The resolution is simply unbelievable and every single stone on the site can be seen. He will stitch his photographs together to make a truly three-dimensional view of the site.

Site director Nick was delighted and wondered whether the presence of a piece of kit on site like this could do away with the need for laborious and time-consuming planning of features.

Clearly, it would be possible to produce the necessarily detailed plans digitally from photographs of such high-resolution.

Two things might stand in the way – the conservatism of some of the archaeological establishment outside Orkney, who might disapprove, and the little matter of the money to purchase and run such equipment. Ah well, we can dream.

We must also mention, however, Andre and his ground controlled mini-helicopter, which has done such excellent aerial photography in the past, and which was also deployed today.

Structure One, as viewed from Andre’s mini-helicopter – fantastic.

Structure Fourteen has made great strides under Hugo, Jim and their team.

We can now see how large scoops were taken out of the north end of the structure by stone robbers, who filled the resulting holes with basically sterile soil.

A lot of the wall has been taken away, but much of value remains.

Ken stratigraphically removes a baulk from the middens infilling Structure Eight.

There is a nice entrance to the structure, flanked by orthostats, with piers and other orthostats defining a recess.

Hugo is planning to use his mattock again at the beginning of next week and it will not be long before we have a complete floor plan of this interesting structure, which can now be seen to be around 12 metres in length.

Quite the most curious feature in the area, however, is in the very north corner where, what looked like paving, is now resolving into a set of steps heading downwards towards . . . who knows what?

In the central midden, Dave and his team are continuing to take down the midden deposits stratigraphically and the same process is taking place in Structure Twelve, where lots of internal stone furniture is beginning to peep skywards from the surface of the midden.

A major photo session is planned for the beginning of next week and then the work of removing the different dumps of midden, stratigraphically, will begin in earnest. This will allow the pottery from these discrete events to be compared, with, we are certain, interesting results.

And on that subject, veteran Ness digger Ray carefully excavated a nice, applied-decoration sherd from the midden yesterday afternoon. As a bonus, it had been finished in contrasting red and black colouring and, when whole, would have been a striking pot indeed.

In Structure Ten, everything has quietened down after the excitement yesterday of Mark’s pestle.  Construction cuts for orthostats, relating to the last major phase, were examined and Mike remains hopeful that the shallow depression being excavated by Sarah will yet turn out to be the post hole for a totem pole . . . or so says Nick.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

A view from the trenches

Mark Littlewood introduces some students to ‘dark art’ of the laser scanner.

Hello from Ann and Emily on our last day of digging at the Ness.

Last year, we visited the site while holidaying on the island and were very keen to return this year to take part in the excavations.

Our week has been spent in and around Structure Fourteen. We started the week on a trowelling line, removing midden deposits, spent the middle of the week excavating walls and paving, and ended with a morning of mattocking and shoveling (hard work!).

Finds from our trench were mainly burnt bone and pottery.

On the whole, it was a good week to be here, with some impressive discoveries such as the miniature flint axe and the macehead.

Ann, the finds supervisor, and Roy, who is co-ordinating work on the pottery, kindly made time to show us some of the Grooved Ware that has been recovered over the past three weeks.

There is so much of it, in a wide range of sizes, from quite small vessels to enormous “super-size” buckets. We met Elle who is researching the pottery from Structure Twelve, comparing the pottery from different contexts and we will be interested to see what she finds out.

Our week has flown past and we look forward to keeping up to date with events in Structure Fourteen, and the rest of the site, by reading the blog (with insiders’ perspective).

Many thanks to Nick for taking us on as volunteers and to everyone for making us so welcome. And a special thanks to Hugo and Jim, who directed operations in our trench.

Emily says that she couldn’t have had a better introduction to excavation and is threatening to come back next year . . .

Ann MacSween and Emily Killgore

My name is Erika Sutherland and I am entering my fourth year of my undergrad in archaeology from the University of British Columbia.

I am here with the Willamette group, which has graciously accepted me as one of their own.

This is my first field and excavation experience and I could not have asked for a more exciting and beautiful place than here at the Ness of Brodgar.

However, this is not my first experience on Orkney. Years ago, the August I spent here with my family was much colder and rainier than the summer I’m seeing now. I must admit I hardly recognised the sites and towns without the constant clouds and downpour.

On my first visit here, I thought Orkney was fantastic, but having the chance to see it all under a bright northern sun is truly amazing.

When I came to Orkney, several years ago, I arrived much younger and more naïve about the historical and pre-historical landscape.

My father’s side of the family has their roots here on several of the surrounding islands of Orkney, including Hoy and South Ronaldsay. In fact, one of my great-grandmothers called the village of Stenness home. That vacation was spent in many cemeteries, visiting long past family and the many Bronze Age and Neolithic sites that are numerous all over the islands.

Returning as an archaeology student I have a much greater appreciation for the historical and geographical context of these sites, yet I am still learning!

The Ness of Brodgar excavation has provided a new learning experience every day.

The first day they handed me a trowel and placed me in the midden deposit between Structures Twelve and Eight. It wasn’t too long before I was experimenting with the different trowel techniques and coming across my first bit of Neolithic Grooved Ware pottery.

The excitement of uncovering an item crafted and used thousands of years before myself, or any of us, were here is unforgettable. That was just the beginning of finds I would see emerge from the earth. So far, I have excavated a variety of stone tools, flint flakes, worked flint and pottery ranging from well preserved to hardly recognisable.

I am currently working along the wall of Structure One, where I am learning the techniques of context recognition and recording, as well as planning and drawing site details.

I am overwhelmed to return and see the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar so many years later and have the opportunity to learn and experience the area in a much different way than my great-grandmother did.

Erika Sutherland

The macehead starts to appear in Structure Ten.

Today, we will start with the best, the very best, find we have had in a while.

Professor Mark Edmonds arrived on site late in the afternoon and moved into the middle of the interior of Structure Ten, somewhat to the south of the hearth, and began to clean a small area of midden in preparation for excavating one of the construction cuts for a robbed-out orthostat.

He had hardly been there 60 seconds when a small area of blackish stone began to appear.

Mark is one of Europe’s foremost experts on stone tools and recognized instantly what he had found. The smooth, and slightly mottled, surface of the stone in front of him was absolutely indicative of the type of beautiful igneous rock used in the manufacture of stone maceheads. And that is almost, but not quite, what he had found.

A suitable discovery for Professor Mark Edmonds.

It is absolutely one of the most handsome stone tools we have ever seen.

The green mottled surface is polished in the middle, but the slightly swelling ends of the tool have clearly seen duty as they are marked from use.

What is it?

It could have started life being fashioned into a pestle-style macehead, but it does not have a hole drilled through the middle for a wooden haft.

This suggests that it was actually used as a pestle for grinding (though this may have been a secondary use), and that in itself is of considerable interest.

As Mark points out, many Neolithic sites have stone tools in the form of axes and hammers, but what is unusual about the Ness is the quantity of stone tools which are used for grinding and polishing, possibly in the preparation of colour pigment or in the production of other fine tools.

Just as at the nearby Barnhouse Settlement, where the absence of certain types of stone tools is believed to point to the lack certain manufacturing activities, the presence of beautiful artefacts like this pestle points at the Ness to the production of fine goods and a colourful environment.

And the pestle is, most certainly, a product of the Late Neolithic.

This spectacular find soon attracted the attention of the whole site and soon Structure Ten was the focus of a battery of clicking cameras, not least the photographers from National Geographic.

Erica investiates the realignment of the outer wall of Structure One.

In Structure One, the strange recess in the outer wall face was being investigated by Erica.

This has shown that this recess is, in fact, a realignment of the wall that relates to the insertion of a later curving wall that defines the second major phase of Structure One.

We are also delighted to welcome Adam Stanford with his enormously long camera-on-a-pole.

He will be working with the National Geographic photographers, Jim and Jim, and carrying out three-dimensional imaging and rectified photography. He will also give us tutorials on photography.

In Structure Eight, Dave and his team are removing midden from the far end of the structure and may well come down onto more roof tiles in the next few days.

That will be exciting, but onerous as they have to be recorded and moved with care.

One of the baulks in the structure will also now be sampled and stratigraphically removed, thereby revealing more of the interior of this enigmatic structure.

Roll on tomorrow as who knows what wonders will be revealed . . .

A view from the trenches

The miniature flint axe discovered by Woody yesterday.

Introductions first, I suppose. My name is Dylan and I am an American student here on the Ness of Brodgar with Willamette University.

I have only been here about a week-and-a-half but I absolutely love the site. Before I came north to Orkney, I was in south-west Bulgaria on an excavation of a Roman-era Macedonian site. Needless to say the two experiences are quite different.

It was 40 degrees centigrade when I left Bulgaria, which made getting off the plane here a little bit of a shock. The temperature difference, along with the rain and the wind, make for an entirely different dig experience in their own right. However, being from Washington state, which is known for its rain and cooler temperatures, I have been able to adjust fairly readily.

My interest has always been in Greek and Roman era history (hence my attraction to the site in Bulgaria) and so when I signed up to come to the Ness of Brodgar, which is a Neolithic site, I thought it would be great excavation experience, but not necessarily of particular interest to me. I was absolutely wrong.

When one thinks about the Neolithic era, we have a tendency to imagine a bunch of cavemen sitting around a fire, grunting at each other. What can there really be to recover from that far back? A day on the Ness of Brodgar completely flips that idea on its head.

The first thing you notice are the structures, of which there are several clearly defined around the site. Far from being a pile of stones thrown together to keep the wind out, these are structures where people lived for many years, with carefully shaped walls, surprisingly even on the inside,  and with few gaps, which is particularly impressive as they are built with no mortar. The doorway of one of the structure seems to align with the sunrise on the summer solstice, indicating much more forethought into the layout of the buildings than I would have originally guessed.

While they did use stone tools, my image of a man pounding away at a deer hide with a river rock was off-base by more than I could imagine.

While I have been here, I have seen multiple flint and stone tools uncovered, which have been carefully shaped into axes, knives, and other tools, each with a specialized purpose to the owner.

I, myself, have uncovered several very large pieces of pottery, one of which even was graced with decorative lines etched into the outer surface.

Before I arrived here I would not have been able to guess at the incredible complexity of a society that existed several thousand years ago, and whose lives we are trying to reconstruct bit by bit today. My experience at this site is, as yet, limited and I love listening to the site supervisors and those who have been here for longer make connections between different artefacts and structures, which I am only beginning to see.

Each day I get to uncover (and try not to break) tools, pots, and bones which have not seen the light of day in thousands of years, and show me how wrong my original assumptions were. It is an incredible experience which I would trade for nothing.

While my main interest is still Greek history, the Ness of Brodgar is giving that a run for its money every day.

And while I would love to sit here and tell you all about the incredible things I am getting to do, there is a trench out there calling my name, and a pot just waiting to be uncovered.

I can’t wait to go see what will turn up next.

Aerial view of the Ness of Brodgar excavations. July 2012. Click on the picture for  a larger version.
© RCAHMS. Licensor www.rcahms.gov.uk.

The above aerial shot, taken by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), shows the 2012 excavation season getting under way last month.

For more aerial pictures from previous years, see http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/269123/details/stenness+brodgar/

The north-east corner buttress of Structure Fourteen is revealed.

We have had an interesting day on the Ness, if blowy, wet and intermittently miserable.

Hugo, in Structure Fourteen and ancillary areas, was happy.

But Hugo is always happy when he can use a mattock (definition: large, heavy sharp instrument with long handle).

In case anyone gets the wrong idea, a mattock can be used with great delicacy and the absolute minimum of swinging. It is, of course, useful for removing large areas of material quickly, and in the extension to Structure Fourteen midden has, indeed, come off with remarkable speed on the north-west side of the trench.

On the north-east side, further work has been done on the recently revealed walling and paving.  However, the new pier, which was revealed at the end of last week, has now been shown to be a corner buttress, as is found in nearby Structure One. Most intriguingly, Structure Fourteen can now be seen as having a mixture of elements from Structures Eight, Twelve and One.

Covers stay in place in Structure One to protect vulnerable floor deposits.

The bad weather has meant that much of the precious floor areas of Structure One have remained covered by plastic.

In the east entrance, excavation has continued on the square, stone setting found there.

It is not a hearth (like the one in the entrance to Structure Eight at the nearby Barnhouse Settlement), as had been expected, but is instead a simple stone box filled with a very homogenous material, which is more like earth than midden.

Suggestions that it is a foot bath at the door for grubby Neolithic feet are generally derided!

The stratigraphy of midden dumps in the central midden area, up against walls, has led to suggestions that Structure Twelve may be later than Structure Eight, despite the earlier feeling that they were contemporary.

Mai half sections the stone setting in the side entrance to Structure One.

Certainly, the north wall of Structure Twelve, which adjoins the central midden (via the “porch”) has certainly been remodeled on several occasions.

This issue will become clearer soon, but in the meantime Structure Twelve has come up with another mystery.

As we mentioned yesterday, the baulk of midden, which was left, partly to define the robber trench, is being removed.

It has now been revealed to contain what appears to be a stone cist within the midden infill, and certainly late in the sequence for the structure. More of this to come in following days.

The external sondage to the west end of Structure Ten is being extended by Andy to try to find out the relationship between the deposition of the midden and the end of life of the structure.

The two halves of the polished stone chisel with one half still wet from a gentle clean.

The interior of Structure Ten, however, remains horrendously difficult to understand.

The removal of some elements, as mentioned yesterday, has allowed a sight of the very thick sealing of clay, which may seal the primary floor of the structure, perhaps (and hopefully) as a leveling layer.

However, there remains the possibility that the primary floor may no longer exist and that what we are seeing is an early glimpse of material covering the earlier structure which lies under Structure Ten.

This is improbable, but it is all very difficult to disentangle. However, further excavation should begin to make sense of it soon.

Tomorrow, more rain is forecast. We shall see, and no doubt suffer.

Two exquisite finds have come light today, just to the west of Structure One – two halves of a polished stone “chisel” that match exactly, and also a miniature flint axe.  Although several other polished stone axes have been recovered, this is the first flint one.

Although not polished, but merely flaked, this is a beautiful object yet only circa three centimetres.

Also the incised stone slab that turned up in the east wall of Structure One last week has revealed the beauty of its very slight incised decoration.

Close-up photography, by finds assistant Scott Forsyth in the early morning light, suddenly highlighted parallel bands of different designs – chevrons, cross-hatching, and crosses.

Photos like this really do dispel the idea that these are not careful designs and just random incisions.

Close-up of some of the incised decoration – each band is circa 1cm wide.

A view from the trenches

A plethora of section lines in the new extension clarify the infill and later robbing events relating to Structure Fourteen.

Hello! I’m Siân Killick and I’m one of the new recruits who started on site this week, so I’m already on day three of my two week stint here on the Ness.

Although archaeology has been the focus of my studies for the past seven years, this is only my second real experience of “life at the trowel’s edge” and it’s very different from digging in rural Hampshire!

This trip is also my first lone excursion and I’ve had to brave two planes and a taxi ride to get here from Kent – all I can say is that the journey is definitely being proved worthwhile!

I’ve mainly been working in Structure Fourteen, alongside Ken (who’s come all the way back from America to dig for a second time), where we have been trowelling through the stratigraphic layers to reveal the walls and areas of fill within the structure. Just this afternoon, I have begun to define an internal corner of the section I’m working on – having spent all morning lifting a particularly delicate collection of pottery.

After yesterday’s glorious sunshine, the weather today has taken a swift turn for the worst and we’ve all been battered by the wind and rain!

Despite the weather, spirits are still high in the trenches as we all plough on. Unfortunately, the usually constant stream of visitors has slowed slightly in the rain but the odd one or two who’ve decided to brave the weather have been impressed by the site and what it has to offer. The on-site dig shop is particularly good and I must admit I’ve already bought a stash of fridge magnets and postcards to take home with me!

Other than hoping the weather improves slightly, I’m having a great time so far and I look forward to finding out what the rest of my time here on the Ness of Brodgar has to offer!

Andi and Dan discuss the lower fills in the hearth in Structure One,

With the growing importance of the Ness as an archaeological site of international significance has come the inevitable international media attention.

In lots of ways this is very welcome. Many of the hundreds of visitors have heard of the site through their national media and it is clear that many visit solely because their interest has been fired by printed news and features, television programmes and, increasingly, by social media and websites.

Today brought even more media visitors.

A German film crew making a programme about Scotland decided to cross the firth to visit Orkney and the Ness.

Dain reveals more of the entrance to Structure Twelve.

As their film is so wide-ranging, we suspect that the Ness will only merit a snippet or two in the finished product, but all interest is welcome – even though the sight of an umbrella, held up by a crew member, was seen by many as curious (umbrellas not normally being the shelter of choice in windy Orkney).

We are also glad to welcome Jim Richardson and Jim Turner, who are taking photographs for National Geographic magazine.

An article for that magazine, with its massive circulation, has been planned for a couple of years and magazine writer Roff Smith has become a good friend of the Ness.  He has visited (on his bicycle) on several occasions and has even sent his daughter Laura, who is digging with us this year.

We hope to see Roff again in the next few weeks and an article in the magazine, perhaps at the end of this year or during next year.

Back to the archaeology.

In Structure Ten, the overall phasing has progressed well, but it is now necessary to address the fact that certain features, including the “dressers” and the north-west pier, are later elements – facts that are hindering further understanding of how the structure developed and was used.

They will have to go, but this is not the dangerously radical notion it may appear to the uninitiated. The simple fact is that archaeology is necessarily a destructive procedure because it is often imperative to remove an element in order to see and understand what is underneath it, and what has gone on before.

Hugo and Felicia contemplate the rubble fill of the new end recess in Structure Fourteen.

Anything which is removed is, of course, is thoroughly documented beforehand by drawing, photography and by three-dimensional fixing. Gone, but never forgotten, and always capable of being recalled digitally.

This, however, is still not a decision taken lightly as these elements are such a piece of the furniture in Structure Ten and have become almost old friends that have helped to define this amazing building.

Hugo, Jim and their team have continued to reveal more in the extension of Structure Fourteen and Felicia, who has been in an end cell in the south-west area of the structure, has revealed how neatly the cell was filled in by the rubble material.

In Structure Twelve, the removal of the baulks left to define the area of the robbing trench will allow the last remaining midden to be taken down in a level manner.

In the northern entrance into the structure, Dain has been removing the blocking material, allowing this to be taken down to the same level as the interior, thus allowing the midden over the whole structure to be taken down in a clear stratigraphic sequence.

Classic blues musician Walker Ryan concludes a perfect day on the Ness.

To end an almost perfect day, we had an almost surreal experience on site.

Walker Ryan, an exceptional blues musician from Oregon, had visited the site last year and promised to return this summer armed with his guitar which he has duly done.

As the close of play on site neared we were “serenaded” by the haunting rhythms of some real blues classics, including Robert Johnson.

As the music resonated around the site one felt that that music was not alien to the site and our Neolithic forefathers must have incorporated sounds in their activities at the Ness (perhaps not the Blues though!).

A big thank you Walker from all the team – made our day (especially Nick’s).

Rain is promised for tomorrow. We’ll see.

A view from the trenches

Hello and welcome to Tuesday, July 31.  Another day of good weather, a few patches of sunshine and a light wind.

My name is Catherine and I have been working in Structure One for the last week.

For the past two days, I have been working in the north-western recess, taking down the levels gradually, to try and reach occupation level.  There are two contexts revealed.

Today has seen further excavation of the western recess, the south-west corner revealing some sort of structure filled with a sandy gravel which seems to be peculiar to that context.

Removal of the baulks left to define the robber cut in Structure Twelve.

There are a large number of what appear to be water-washed pebbles. The sandy gravel is a sharp contrast to the other levels I have worked on in the structure, which have consisted of a clay silt or dumps of clay and consequently much easier to work.  This context has revealed few finds, apart from a beautiful worked flint.

Other members of the Structure One team have been concerned with further excavating the second hearth, on the north-eastern side, and further painstaking cleaning and photographing of the main central hearth.

This is my last day of what has been a wonderful opportunity to work on such an intact Neolithic site.

My previous experience of early pre-Roman occupation has been limited to, at best, Iron Age sites with few, or no, preserved structures, other than ditches.

Many thanks Nick and team for a wonderful opportunity – guess it’s back to the Romans for me . . .

Hope to see you next year!