Coloured pottery at the Ness – new paper published

An example of a coloured pot sherd – note the red area.

Over the last few seasons we have discovered many sherds of pottery that exhibit colour. The Ness is one of the very few sites in the UK where this has been recognised and may represent the oldest polychrome pottery in Britain.

A new paper – Analysis of coloured Grooved Ware sherds from the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney – has just been published on the scientific analysis of this pot  in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Many thanks to Nick Card, Richard Jones, Nic Odling, our own ceramics specialist Roy Towers for bringing this to fruition.

Coloured pot reconstructions. (Cecily Webster)