Eagle-eyed Travis brings Ness pitchstone total to 25

Finds-magnet Travis with the latest pitchstone fragment from the Ness.

The pitchstone flake.

That well known finds magnet strikes again…

Travis, known to some of you from last years on site blog where he gained the reputation for finding several beautiful artefacts, has been gaining more work experience throughout the year assisting Cecily with sorting the residues from the sample flotation process.

Occasionally something exceptional turns up that was not retrieved by our normally eagle-eyed diggers during excavation.

This time, in among the usual morass of bits of burnt bone, stone and pot fragments, he discovered a fine large blade of pitchstone – the volcanic glass, similar to obsidian, that has made its way from Arran, off the south-west coast of Scotland.

This brings the total number of pitchstone flakes from the Ness to 25 and now surpasses the total from the nearby site of Barnhouse — the only other site in Orkney where it has been found.