Spectacular Ness summer exhibition opens at the Orkney Museum
After months of work and preparation, our new exhibition opened in the Orkney Museum today, Saturday.
And, as expected, Katy, Norna, Anne, Nick and Mark have done a sterling job! It really does the Ness proud!
Ness of Brodgar: Past, Present and Future celebrates and coincides with 2024’s final season of excavation. Running until September 28, it is the largest exhibition hosted in Tankerness House to date.
The displays cover four areas of the museum and not only look back at two decades of excavation but ahead to the project’s next phase – the post-excavation analysis and interpretation of all the material and, ultimately, publication.
The exhibition covers all aspects of the Ness assemblage – from midden and animal bone fragments to some of the most spectacular carved stones and artefacts.
Among these are the complete “Butterfly Stone“, found at Structure Twelve’s northern entrance in 2013; the carved stone ball found in Structure Ten in 2013, and the spectacular polished stone axe recovered from Structure Fourteen in 2012.
Visitors will also see macehead fragments, polished stone axes, flint tools, clay thumb pots and examples of Grooved Ware pottery. The artefact displays are accompanied by numerous specially created interpretation boards telling the story of Ness, and its excavation.
Taking pride of place in the display of decorated stones are the beautifully dressed red sandstone slabs that made up the central pillar of Structure Ten’s “dresser” – our thanks to Bruce Sinclair for creating the work-of-art frame that supports this.
Also in the area is the huge, intricately incised stone deposited beneath Structure Ten during its rebuild/remodelling around 2800BC.
Although open to the public from Saturday, May 4, the exhibition will be officially opened on May 9, by renowned classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard.
Prof Beard is an Emerita Professor and Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and a well-known for her television programmes on Rome and the Romans. Her previous books include the bestselling, Wolfson Prize-winning, Pompeii, SPQR, and Women & Power.
Speaking ahead of her visit, Prof Beard said: “I am really looking forward to coming back to Orkney and it is a huge honour to be opening the Ness of Brodgar exhibition.
“I fell in love with Orkney on my first, all too brief, visit. Then I spent most of my time at the amazing Scapa Flow Museum.
“I am looking forward to going back – but also to discovering my inner prehistorian. What better place than Orkney?”
We might be biased, but what better place than the Ness…
Convener of the Orkney Islands Council, Councillor Graham Bevan, said: “The incredible Ness of Brodgar dig has been a fixture of Orkney’s summer for twenty years now, attracting visitors and archaeologists from all over the world.
“To have someone of Professor Beard’s standing within her field to open the Orkney Museum exhibition is a huge honour and I look forward to welcoming her to Orkney.”
Support and financial assistance for the exhibition has come from the Orkney Heritage Society, Orkney Archaeology Society, Orkney Museums, The Orcadian and the Orkney Islands Council Culture Fund.
The Orkney Museum is open Monday-Saturday, 10.30am – 5pm. Admission is free (although donations welcome).
The exhibition is accompanied by a new book, of the same name, produced by the Ness of Brodgar Trust with printing costs generously provided from the Orkney Archaeology Society Legacy Fund.
Ness of Brodgar: Past, Present & Future is available here.
