Dig Diary – a new building name on the cards after wall revealed under Structure One?

Friday, July 12, 2024 (9:45 PM)

Kariane and Emma with the small, curved wall section underneath Structure One's northern end. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — Kariane and Emma with the small, curved wall section under Structure One’s northern end. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Day Fifteen
Friday, July 12, 2024

Structure One's primary phase with the area under investigation at the north end highlighted in red. — Structure One’s primary phase with the area under investigation at the north end highlighted in red.

We’ve reached the end of week three and perhaps stand on the cusp of naming a new building!

Regular readers will know that the buildings in Trench P were constructed over the remains of their predecessors. This led to major problems with subsidence, evidence of which can be seen clearly in the walls of Structures Twelve and Eight.

Their contemporary, Structure One, showed no signs of such problems, which left us thinking it had not been built on earlier remains.

But last year, some substantial stones were noted under the building and today, in the north end, we have what appears to be part of a curving wall that pre-dates One.

Only a small section of the wall has been revealed, but enough to have site director Nick pondering whether to allocate it a “name”.

The ever-smiling Emma and Kariane will continue working on the feature and when more has been exposed, we could be looking at Structure Forty…

We’ll keep an eye on this one and let you know the outcome.

Tom and Ishbel solidering on with the midden removal. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The phenomenal efforts of the midden movers in Trench T have been nothing more than incredible. The baulk over the northern end of Structure Twenty-Seven has been considerable reduced, revealing more of two huge orthostats that follow the alignment of the building.

There’s still more to remove before we can say anything about Twenty-Seven’s entrance, but that will be one of the tasks facing the new intake of diggers from Willamette University, Oregon, USA, when they arrive on site on Monday.

Allyson and the grinder/polisher she found in Structure Five today. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

In Trench J, a former Willamette digger, Allyson revealed an incredibly fine stone tool in Structure Five. A fitting discovery for her last day on site.

Fashioned from camptonite, the grinder/polisher had been worn down through use, but this left some really beautiful, almost glass-like polished surfaces.

Well done Allyson and we wish you well on your onward journeys.

Allyson and the grinder/polisher she found in Structure Five today. (📷 Gary Lloyd)

Allyson at work in Structure Five. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Sarah-Jane, Rosie and Aaron around Structure Five's hearth. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Meanwhile, in the north end of Structure Twelve, Sigurd finished planning the upper levels of the clay-filled pit he excavated earlier this week.

The stone-lined pit in Structure Twelve's northern end. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — The stone-lined pit in Structure Twelve’s northern end. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The recording done, that meant we could life the pits basal slab and see what lay underneath. There was an air of hushed excitement and anticipation as Sigurd and Jim began lifting the stone…

The Ness has an illustrious pedigree of building up the removal of threshold stones, covers and stone bases.

The excitement grows and the time of lifting draws closer. But in nearly all cases that excitement is soon followed by a sense of deflation when it becomes clear there’s nothing there!

And today? With the pit base? Did it buck the trend?

No, it did not.

Beneath the stone was…yet more midden. A considerably quantity! Some judicious prodding confirmed the pit goes down another 0.63 metres before striking stone again.

So work to remove that will begin next week.

Ceiridwen with the flint flake she found in Structure Seventeen. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

A closer view of Ceiridwen's flint flake. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

We’ll end today’s briefer than usual diary (we’re all tired) with a reminder that Sunday, July 14, will see the first of this season’s open days – on site and in the Stenness school from 11am-4pm.

We hope to see many of you on the day so here’s a taste of what’s on offer.

On site, we’ll be joined by the Historic Environment Scotland World Heritage Site rangers and running continuous tours of all three trenches. Our dig team will be also working on Sunday so you’ll be able to see archaeology in action.

On site :

Orkney Boreray sheep
Chris Gee – colouring the stones
Jeanne Rose – Neolithic hands
Paul Durdin – flint knapping
Michaela Stones – pots and clay
Jackson Clark – burning bones
Kevin Critchlow – drystone walls
Holly Young – shells

At the school:

Gary Lloyd – worked stone tools
Martha Johnson – walls and rocks
Cecily Webster and Sally Hallam – sorting out the past
Ingrid Mainland, Jen Harland & Julia Cussens – animal bones
Jan Blatchford – Ness pottery
Sarah-Jane Haston – plant remains and what they tell us
Michael Sinclair – Orkney woodturner
Tom O’Brien – photographing the past
Anne Lea – weaving
Siobhan Cooke-Miller and George Prew – Orkney Museum fine things and Treasure Trove
Ness books, a selection of Orkney Archaeology Society goodies.

So, there’s lots to do and see and help support the work at the Ness.

Now to get cleaned up and prepare for Sunday. Where’s the soap and water!

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday.