Dig Diary – making incredible progress in Structure Twenty-Seven
Day Twenty-Two
Monday, July 22, 2024
So here we are at the beginning of week five already! And we really couldn’t have wished for a better start.
Sunshine, hundreds of visitors, great finds and incredible progress across the site.
Work in Structure Twenty-Seven has truly come on in leaps and bounds. A dedicated, hard-working team is toiling away inside and outside the building and we definitely now have the outer wall face at the north-eastern end. What we thought represented the northern wall on Friday, turned out to be an archaeological red herring, but the real thing emerged today.
Even more exciting is the survival of the northern “skirting board” orthostats sunk into the floor.
These join the prone orthostats at the south-western, south-eastern walls and the fragment in the north-western corner, and all defined the interior of Structure Twenty-Seven.
Along each side wall, two of the stone slabs were placed, end-to-end – but not exactly in line to mirror the slight external curve of the walls – with another along the base of the south-western end wall.
In the gap between the prone orthostats and the inner wall large, flat rectangular flagstones were inserted, cladding the internal wall faces.
As the day went on it became clear that the two northern orthostats – separated by 80cm – flank what we’re fairly sure is the structure’s single entrance.
The north-western orthostat lines up beautifully with the huge stone slab that, we think, formed part of the building’s entrance passage/arrangement.
A team of diggers worked hard all day, exposing more of both northern corners of the monumental building and site director Nick was positively delighted with their progress.
To see them – many of whom were only introduced to Twenty-Seven a week ago – working so hard to fulfil our goals for this season truly highlights the spirit of the Ness dig.
Inside the building, Cristina has revealed a cut in the floor that suggest more internal structural features while Mark has exposed the full extent of the huge central hearth.
Well done everyone!
The work continues and we’re certain there will be much more to tell you in the coming days.
At the opposite end of the site, in Trench J, Aaron has started excavating a remarkable piece of Early Neolithic pottery.
The artefact is in the northern extension to Structure Five, which, regular readers will know, is the earliest excavated building on site.
Built around 3300 BC, it predates the large piered structures in Trench P by approximately 200 years and began life as a rectangular building, measuring over 14 metres long and 7.5 metres wide. During the primary section’s apparently short life, an oval extension was tacked on to its north-eastern end.
It was in this extension that the ceramic vessel was found and which probably dates to the end of the occupation phase in which Five’s original section was still in use.
Excavation is ongoing but the fact it is round-bottomed places it firmly in the Early Neolithic, before the flat-bottomed Grooved Ware style of pottery became widespread from around 3200BC. That said, Grooved Ware probably co-existed with some round-based vessels for a while.
The bowl-shaped pot seems to contain something, but we’ll get back to you on that one, once more has been exposed.
Elsewhere in Five, excavation around the eight furniture features in the primary building has revealed more stone tools. We mentioned two of these last week but it now looks like they were deliberately deposited within the remains of the features.
Today, Catriona revealed a particularly fine quartzite example, which showed evidence of heavy use as a hammerstone. Not surprising as these tough stones work well as instruments to strike and shape other material.
In Structure One, work to open a sondage across the building’s southern end is under way. This will give a “side-on” view of the depth of occupation deposits in the area.
Meanwhile, at the north end, Emma, Jenna and Kariane continued to remove material above the curving wall of Structure Forty – their goal to expose more of this earlier building.
And now it’s over to Structure Twelve, where, on Friday, Sigurd was confident (after a few changes of mind) that he had an antler at the bottom of the stone-lined pit in the north-end of Structure Twelve.
Hanging over the end of the pit edge this morning, and after further careful excavation, he changed his mind again. The object had dried out considerably over the weekend and by lunchtime today it seemed we had a portion of a bovine pelvis.
The remains were successfully recovered, though what they represents and why they lay at the apparent base of the pit has been added to continually growing list of enigmas surrounding Structure Twelve and its use.
Was it a deliberate deposit at the bottom of the pit, or simply a piece of discarded animal bone in among the midden into which the pit was dug. Unfortunately, the preservation of the bone was too poor to say with any certainty.
Meanwhile at the south-western end, Chris has been quietly working away on an area outside the building. Viewing his progress this morning, supervisor Jim pointed to a rectangular gap in the outer wall and exclaimed: “We’ve got another drain!”
Shortly afterwards, he identified its inner end – in a corner of Twelve’s south-western recess. And then its story began to unfold…
The evidence suggests the drain was part of Structure Twelve’s original construction but had been deliberately blocked with clay very soon afterwards. Why? Was it a mistake? Considered unnecessary?
Whatever the reason it doesn’t seem to have been used for very long, if at all, before blocking. Excavation continues…
Meanwhile, Trench Z, which was opened earlier this season over the site of the former Trench I, was extended again today. As we explained on Friday, a section of stone walling has emerged that pre-dates Structure Two and this continues to be investigated.
Working on his own today, Kevin encountered some new stone features that warranted further study, so he set to extending the trench at its northern end.
At the end of play today the results looked very interesting indeed. But you’ll need to watch this space for more information over the coming days.
We’ll end tonight with news that a selection of new paintings from Jeanne Rose, one of our artists in residence, can be viewed at the Northlight Gallery, Stromness, until August 6.
On the Ground, Over the Edge, features new art produced at the Ness in 2023 and 2024.
