Stone roofing at the Ness of Brodgar
A new section outlining the the evidence for stone “tiled” roofs at the Ness and what these might have looked like.
Click here to read.… Read more
Category: Excavation
First Ness excavation report available to mark 20th anniversary of discovery
The site of what is now Trench P in April 2003. (📷 Beverley Ballin Smith)The 20th anniversary of Structure One’s discovery – the first building found on site – is… Read more
Ness dig ending in 2024 when focus shifts to post-excavation work
It has been decided that fieldwork at the Ness of Brodgar will end after the 2024 season. However, although on-site excavation will end, the Ness of Brodgar research project continues, analysing all the evidence from the past 20 years. Read more
Link: Excavating Orkney and Shetland from Current Archaeology archives
A selection of Orkney excavation highlights from the archives of Current Archaeology magazine.
Click to read.… Read more
The walls of Brodgar – updated again
During the 2022 excavation season another section of the northern boundary wall, or “Great Wall of Brodgar”, was exposed.
The page focusing on the two walls that flanked the Ness… Read more
The real treasures of an archaeological excavation
A new blog post from PhD candidate Julia Becher, who is analysing lipids on pottery sherds from the Ness of Brodgar as part of the international ChemArch project. Read more
2022’s top ten: rethinking Structure Eight’s original entrance
Unlike other Ness buildings, Structure Eight stands out as having a single entrance.
Measuring over 18 metres long by 9.5 metres wide, Structure Eight is the largest of the piered… Read more
2022’s top ten: paved area between Structures Seventeen and Eighteen
Structures Seventeen and Eighteen are two earlier buildings (c3200BC) that pre-date, and lie beneath, Structure Eight (c3100BC).
A focus of the 2022 excavation season was to reveal more of the… Read more
2022’s top ten: another ‘butterfly’ stone
The “butterfly” motif has been found incised into numerous stones and surfaces across the site, and this year was no exception.
The stone slab pictured above had been incorporated into… Read more
2022’s top ten: two more thumb-pots
We have a growing collection of tiny “thumb pots” at the Ness, and another two were found this summer within two days of each other.
The first came from the… Read more
Harking back to summer with the sounds of the Ness
This was one of the special events at the Ness in 2022, when Suzy Angus made us a sound poem of the excavations.
Pour a glass of… Read more
2022’s top ten: multiple post-holes in Structure Five
Two covered depressions on either side of the blocked south-western entrance were found to be large, well-built post-holes, indicating that the doorway was also flanked by a pair of substantial… Read more
2022’s top ten: human remains between Structures Eight and Seventeen
Excavation of an orthostatic box in 2022, introduced an intriguing new element into the relationship between Structures Seventeen and Eight.
The box – which was clearly, given… Read more
2022’s top ten: the whalebone artefact
We remain in Trench J for today’s Top Ten entry.
A short distance to the north-west of the hearth mentioned on Saturday, and securely embedded into the floor of… Read more
