Dig Diary – what a difference a day makes!

Wednesday, July 24, 2024 (8:13 PM)

All hands on deck at the north-western corner of Structure Twenty-Seven. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Day Twenty-Four
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Back on site this morning, after being away on Tuesday, dig director Nick was both amazed and delighted with the progress made during his brief absence – not just in Structure Twenty-Seven but all across the site.

Well done to all the team! The boss is chuffed!

On Monday, we told you that Aaron had found a piece of Early Neolithic, round-bottomed pottery in the northern extension to Structure Five. And that it appeared to contain something…

The pot has been successfully recovered and we can reveal that, once cleared of midden, its contents were orangey, unfired – or perhaps poorly fired – clay!

The location of the Structure Five post-holes - with Ralph's excavated one pictured top right. (📷 Tom O'Brien) — The location of the Structure Five post-holes – with Ralph’s excavated one pictured top right. (📷 Tom O’Brien)

Nearby, Ralph has removed the primary floor surface around Structure Five’s north-western post-hole – one of six that once held substantial timber posts in the building’s original rectangular section.

This revealed that the cut used for the 0.55-metre-diameter post was much larger – requiring it to be packed into position. This raises a few interesting questions. Were the builders of Structure Five re-using a larger post-hole? One that held an even bigger timber?

The north-western corner post-hole will the extent of the original cut visible outside the packing stones. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

At the building’s south-western corner, Lindsay and Paul are patiently working around two of the excavated section’s eight furniture features.

We’ve explained previously that it now seems stone tools were deliberately deposited in and around these features and today Paul revealed yet another – a hammerstone.

Another find from Five today was a fine piece of haematite, that, given its polished surfaces, had been used – presumably to produce red pigment.

We’ll head back to Trench T now, where the majesty of Structure Twenty-Seven’s construction continues to amaze after more of its northern wall was exposed today.

The team’s efforts to remove robbing debris over the building has has revealed a beautiful, gently curving inner wall face, which shows, once again, the care and skill that went into raising the spectacular building.

The curving inner face and stone setting at Twenty-Seven's north-western corner. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — The curving inner face and stone setting at Twenty-Seven’s north-western corner. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Like the other buildings on site, Structure Twenty-Seven had an inner and outer wall, with a midden core between. Today, a stone setting emerged at the north-western corner, which may (or may not) form part of its construction, e.g. A roof support?

Nick is also pondering whether the slot in the outer face, noted yesterday, is related to this stone setting.

A discussion on the matter this morning highlighted its similarity to those noted by Dr Antonia Thomas in Structures Ten and Fourteen at the Ness as well as at Maeshowe.

Some of the emerging animal bones at the north-western corner of Structure Twenty-Seven. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Regular readers will know that, in previous years, we excavated a considerable quantity of animal remains outside the north-western wall. We found animal bone at the northern end yesterday and today Tom has come down on another apparently substantial deposit in the unexcavated section of the north-western wall.

So far we have noted two large cattle femur and an astralagus and, going on previous years, we’ve got no doubt there will be more. Tom will continue excavation tomorrow.

Emilee, Emma and Caz – Willamettes at work on the north-western wall. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Inside the building, work on a pottery spread in the south-western end. The pottery, which is decorated with applied cordons, lies in a robbing cut inserted when people returned to Twenty-Seven to remove stone.

This cut was made during the operation to remove the south-western “skirting board” orthostat.

All on her lonesome. Kristina at work on Structure Seventeen's floor. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — All on her lonesome. Kristina at work on Structure Seventeen’s floor. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

The Structure Eight team has finished sampling the floor of Structure Seventeen, one of the two buildings lying underneath. They will now remove a section of the floor to see how the deposits accrued over time.

Meanwhile, over in Trench Z, Kevin has been investigating and planning another potential wall line. He has now exposed an outer face so we await further developments from our smallest trench with interest.

Squirreled away. Kevin at the outer face of a new wall feature. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

At the Sponsor-a-Square board. (📷 Jo Bourne)

We’ll conclude today with some thanks…

The Ness dig has become more than just an archaeological site and this year we have attracted record-breaking numbers of visitors – over 10,500 so far this season.

To keep things running smoothly we need many people and today want to single out our meeters and greeters, who welcome visitors, help them park, encourage them to Sponsor-a-Square and generally make their visits as smooth as possible.

They are all volunteers who give up their summer to help us and we’re eternally grateful for their help.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We couldn’t do it without you!

See you tomorrow.