The walls of Brodgar – updated again
During the 2022 excavation season another section of the northern boundary wall, or “Great Wall of Brodgar”, was exposed.
The page focusing on the two walls that flanked the Ness… Read more
The Ness of Brodgar complex
The Ness of Brodgar site has been under excavation since 2004, revealing a massive complex of monumental Neolithic buildings dating from the centuries around 3000BC.
Without parallel in Atlantic Europe, the Ness of Brodgar’s three hectares are filled with huge stone structures containing spectacular finds.
These have made the Ness one of the most important archaeological excavations in the world today, changing our understanding of the culture and beliefs of Neolithic Orkney and shining a new light on the prehistory of northern Europe.
The project is mainly funded through the generosity of the public through our two supporting charities the Ness of Brodgar Trust and the American Friends.
The Staneyhill stone (and round about)
A solitary megalith towers over a Neolithic quarry about 350 metres to the south-east of the Staneyhill horned cairn. Read more
Do post-holes represent a timber building beneath Structure Five?
We mentioned it briefly during last summer’s dig diary, but we’ve got another update to Structure Five’s page today, covering the possibility that there may be an earlier, timber building… Read more
The real treasures of an archaeological excavation
A new blog post from PhD candidate Julia Becher, who is analysing lipids on pottery sherds from the Ness of Brodgar as part of the international ChemArch project. Read more
Wednesday wildlife – otter hunting in the snow
Site director Nick Card braved the gales and snow showers on Sunday and captured these pictures of an aquatic neighbour hunting in the loch.… Read more
‘Severe problems’ at Royal Mail delaying international shop orders
Overseas orders from our shop are being delayed by severe problems at the Royal Mail.
Following a “cyber incident” the postal service is temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas… Read more
Link: ‘Art of Neolithic Orkney’ podcast
We have another History Hit podcast for you today, this time a splendid introduction to Neolithic art in Orkney from Dr Antonia Thomas of the UHI Archaeology Institute.
Click here… Read more
Link: Orkney – Centre of the Stone Age podcast
A new podcast from History Hit, looking at Orkney’s Neolithic remains, including Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae and a section on the Ness of Brodgar, featuring Nick Card… Read more
Staneyhill long horned cairn
Across the waters of the Harray loch, just over two miles north-east of the Ness of Brodgar complex, is one of the few known Orcadian examples of a Neolithic long horned cairn. Read more
The central paved area and standing stone
An update to our excavation background section this week, dealing with the “central paved area” and standing stone between Structures One, Eight, Twelve and Twenty-Nine.
Click here to read.… Read more
2022’s top ten – Rethinking Structure Eight’s original entrance
Unlike other Ness buildings, Structure Eight stands out as having a single entrance.
Measuring over 18 metres long by 9.5 metres wide, Structure Eight is the largest of the piered… Read more
Link: The Ness of Brodgar – marking 20 years of Neolithic discoveries
In the summer of 2022, Current Archaeology‘s Carly Hilts visited the excavation to see progress on the site and hear the latest thinking on the Neolithic complex.
Her subsequent article,… Read more
2022’s top ten – paved area between Structures Seventeen and Eighteen
Structures Seventeen and Eighteen are two earlier buildings (c3200BC) that pre-date, and lie beneath, Structure Eight (c3100BC).
A focus of the 2022 excavation season was to reveal more of the… Read more
2022’s top ten – another ‘butterfly’ stone
The “butterfly” motif has been found incised into numerous stones and surfaces across the site, and this year was no exception.
The stone slab pictured above had been incorporated into… Read more
2022’s top ten – two more thumb-pots
We have a growing collection of tiny “thumb pots” at the Ness, and another two were found this summer within two days of each other.
The first came from the… Read more
Harking back to summer with the sounds of the Ness
This was one of the special events at the Ness in 2022, when Suzy Angus made us a sound poem of the excavations.
Pour a glass of something you love,… Read more
2022’s top ten – multiple post-holes in Structure Five
Two covered depressions on either side of the blocked south-western entrance were found to be large, well-built post-holes, indicating that the doorway was also flanked by a pair of substantial… Read more
The Stones of Via
“Between the top of Lingafiold and the Loch of Clumly are the stones of Via, which are worthy of the antiquarian’s attention, and which are supposed to be a cromlech… Read more
Video: Maeshowe and the winter solstice
Today, Wednesday, December 21, is the winter solstice – a day intextricably linked to Maeshowe in Stenness.
With its south-westerly facing entrance, Maeshowe’s best known attribute is its orientation towards the… Read more
2022’s top ten – human remains between Structures Eight and Seventeen
Excavation of an orthostatic box in 2022, introduced an intriguing new element into the relationship between Structures Seventeen and Eight.
The box – which was clearly, given its contents, not… Read more
2022’s top ten – the whalebone artefact
We remain in Trench J for today’s Top Ten entry.
A short distance to the north-west of the hearth mentioned on Saturday, and securely embedded into the floor of Structure… Read more
2022’s top ten – Trench J’s trio of polished stone axes
In 2022, Trench J maintained its reputation for producing polished stone axes – with three beautiful examples adding to its growing total.
At the start of the season the attention… Read more
Tracking down the ‘Brodgar road’
“Whence came they? Old tradition says there was a road made from Vestrafiold for the purpose and I have traced the road most of the way thence; and indeed, where… Read more
