How the Ness is helping inspire a new generation of archaeologists
The dig this year is being closely followed from all the way down in Adelaide, South Australia.
Scotch College is a co-educational independent school with strong Scottish foundations established in 1919.
The school has an excellent humanities curriculum, and now potentially a few budding archaeologists.
Anna Martin is a parent at Scotch, but she is also an archaeologist that joins our team to work in Finds.
When one of the Scotch campus buildings, early stables, built circa 1830, had to have the floor removed in April 2018, it was decided that this would be the ideal opportunity to give the Year Seven students their first experience in archaeology.
Anna introduced the students to anthropology, archaeology, and touched upon the Ness, anticipating the summer dig season when she would be back on site.
With the help of the head of humanities and teachers, Anna led the students in a dig experience to discover the many uses their building had prior to its current function.
It was an excellent success, with the students learning the basics to excavate, record, bag and ultimately analyse their finds.
Artefacts included everything from early stable tacks, desktop ink wells, gymnasium flooring, art tools, and even a Twisties packet from the 1960s.
Now that they have had the chance to experience archaeology first hand, they are prepared to further understand and interpret what seems so far away.
Not only our Neolithic past, but more specifically the efforts to excavate the Ness of Brodgar.
They are currently following this season’s dig diary, with updates and explanations from Anna, directly out of the finds hut.
We hope they and their families might all have an opportunity to visit us in the future.
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