Structures Twenty and Thirty-Six
Structure Twenty
Built around 2900BC, Structure Ten was the last major construction in Trench P.
Like its predecessors, Ten was raised on the remains of earlier structures – perhaps as many as three. One of these was Structure Twenty – an estimated 16-metre-long subrectangular building aligned north-east to south-west.
Our investigation into Structure Twenty began in 2021, focusing on an exposed section of its south-eastern wall that ran across the forecourt outside Ten’s entrance.
Keyed into that wall’s inner face, and projecting at right angles from it, was a substantial stone slab (see A on illustration below).
Although opposing piers divided up the interior of the bulk of the buildings on site, the use of orthostatic pairs – not unlike the arrangement found within the stalled cairns – is known from other Early Neolithic buildings in Orkney.
The slab in Twenty had all the hallmarks of a divisional orthostat, implying that the building pre-dated its piered neighbours. But we’ve learned that things are seldom simple at the Ness and, sure enough, in 2023 a stone pier was found to project from the same wall face (B).
The excavation of a sondage inserted over the wall not only suggested that Twenty was a piered structure – and therefore later in date – but larger than expected.
At the end of the 2023 season we had only revealed evidence of one pier but, from the other structural features encountered, suspected that Twenty had two pairs – the second set lying beneath the walls of Structure Ten to the north-east.
Another wall face was revealed when the sandbags were removed from Structure Ten’s central hearth (C), this one probably part of an end recess that lined up beautifully with a corner buttress already noted in Ten’s north-western corner (D).
Twenty’s wall section was very well built, with an inner double skin to support the interior face, and a separate outer skin and midden core to help take the weight of the roof and provide insulation.
Returning in 2024, it will come as no surprise that Structure Twenty’s biography turned out to be complex than we first imagined. It became clear, for example, that the excavated pier was clearly a later addition because it had been built up against the inner wall face rather than keyed into it.
This led to the suggestion that it, and presumably any others, were added to buttress the inner face.
The small size of the exploratory sondage means it is impossible to say for sure, but it does seem that Twenty was originally dived up by pairs of orthostatic pairs before the structure was altered later in its life.
The evidence for corner buttresses, while fitting with the piered architecture, could well represent an extension and/or remodelling of the original building.
Post-excavation work continues to see where Structure Twenty sits in the history of the Ness complex but, at present, it seems likely that its earliest, stalled, phase may pre-date the known piered buildings, which were raised between 3200 and 3100BC.
Whatever the situation, the fact Structure Twenty’s excavated wall survived to around 0.7m in height implies the building was still standing – rather than ruinous – before it was dismantled to allow the construction of Ten on top.
Structure Thirty-Six
Around 3100BC, Structure Fourteen was built in what is now the northern corner of Trench P.
The new construction was placed exactly over the top of the dismantled remains of its predecessor, Structure Thirty-Six. Because it had been razed to its foundations, the exact form and size of Thirty-Six are uncertain, but it sat on the same alignment as Fourteen.
Features of the older building also seemed to match up with the recesses of its replacement, suggesting Structure Fourteen was a rebuild that maintained the footprint of Structure Thirty-Six.
The repeated re-use of house sites is a common narrative at Neolithic settlements.
This act of reconstruction, perhaps re-using materials from the earlier buildings, seems to represent the maintenance of a physical link to the past.
