Buildings through time: Structure Twelve
The next in our series looking at the excavation of each major structure over time focuses on Structure Twelve.
… Read more
Category: Excavation
Buildings through time: Structure One
Unsurprisingly, things have changed considerably over the years of work at the Ness. So we thought it would be interesting to compile a collection of photographs showing the excavation of… Read more
The Science of the Ness – 2020 Orkney Science Festival talk
In this talk for the 2020 Orkney Science Festival, site director Nick Card outlines the scientific techniques involved in excavation and post-excavation work and is joined by two colleagues… Read more
The Ness – a place of compulsive building, rebuilding and alteration
Diary – Friday, August 14, 2020
Day Thirty
The weather saw excavation on this day in 2012 cancelled. Torrential rain lashed the site for much of the day, leaving surfaces… Read more
Structure Eight – the mystery of the elusive entrance solved!
Diary – Thursday, August 13, 2020
Day Twenty-Nine
We begin today with another pillow stone – this time from Structure Fourteen in 2013.
The beautifully polished stone, similar to the… Read more
Standing stones appear outside Structure Twelve
Diary – Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Day Twenty-Seven
It was all go on in Structure Ten on this day in 2011.
Further excavation of the central hearth revealed it to… Read more
A master of his art – Jim Richardson photographs from around the Ness
Jim Richardson visiting the Ness in 2019. (📷 Jo Bourne)In 2012, Jim Richardson visited the Ness to capture images for a planned National Geographic feature article.The resultant images were truly… Read more
Structure Eight’s second polished ‘pillow stone’
2011: Sarah reveals that the hearth in Structure Ten, despite suffering from subsidence, was indeed complete. (📷 ORCA)Diary – Tuesday, August 12, 2020Day Twenty-SevenThe size and grandeur of Structure Ten… Read more
More cupmarked, dressed and painted stone
Diary – Monday, August 10, 2020
Day Twenty-Six
The 2011 investigation of the area around the presumed entrance to Structure Ten struck gold today – wall lines!
These, however, were… Read more
Reduced Ness team head east for Bronze Age fieldwalk
Diggers and Finds Team volunteers come from far and wide to excavate the Ness of Brodgar but there is also a core of folk in Orkney who give their summers… Read more
The momentous day we found our carved stone ball
2012: Exposed rubble deposits at the south end of Structure Eight. (📷 ORCA)Dig Diary – Friday, August 7, 2020Day Twenty-Five2012: The Structure Twelve coloured pot sherd. (📷 ORCA)It was officially… Read more
Degrees of separation – a brief guide to the flotation process
The recovery of large artefacts, such as stone tools and pottery, is just one part of the excavation process. What about the tiny items and organic material that are a… Read more
Three new buildings and a decommissioning feast for Structure Twenty-Seven
Dig Diary – Thursday, August 6, 2020
Day Twenty-Four
We begin today in 2012 – another damp day in which activity on site was hampered by rain.
… Read more
The first excavation at the Ness
Anyone who has been on a tour of the Ness will be familiar with the story of the notched slab that started it all.
The slab, which had been ploughed… Read more
