<< Our Photo Pages >> Ness of Brodgar - Ancient Village or Settlement in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 24 October 2024  Page Views: 97993

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Ness of Brodgar
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
 Nearest Village: Stromness
Map Ref: HY3024312941
Latitude: 58.997862N  Longitude: 3.21584W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

LittleEnki de1bert0 gailw X-Ice eirrac5 whese001 jain Fizzy would like to visit

wildtalents visited on 15th Jul 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 I visited while the annual dig season was in full swing. Difficult to interpret what you're seeing (and much more excavation has been made in the years since, 2024 being the final year of excavation). This isthmus of land is packed with so much history but don't overlook the Ness if you are nearby.

Andy B visited on 2nd Aug 2013 OK this site wasn't actually in the Ancient History of Britain programme but I wanted a link to all our sites in Orkney as Neil visited to look at the Orkney vole.

mgts24 visited on 1st Aug 2013 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 5 I am working there as an archaeology student.

jeffrep visited on 15th Aug 2007 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4

rrmoser lizh have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.67 Ambience: 4.33 Access: 4.67

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Excavation of Ness of Brodgar neolithic settlement, Isle of Orkney. Composite of two images. Image copyright: nisudapi, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)
A large Neolithic complex on the Brodgar peninsula lies on the low ridge between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Many stunning discoveries were made during the last 20 years. The excavation has now finished and been covered over.

In 2003 a large notched stone was ploughed up and a rescue excavation was undertaken, under the Human Remains Call-Off Contract, as the stone was thought to be from a cist. The trench revealed part of a large structure similar to Structure 2 at nearby Barnhouse Neolithic Village. This finding initiated a resistivity survey to try to define the extent of the built archaeology and complement the initial gradiometer survey.

See Orkneyjar.com for a comprehensive up to date listing of finds and theories including the upcoming excavations on the Neolithic site on Ness of Brodgar, in Stenness. The dig usually runs during July and August.

Visit their Official Web Site for more information or read their earlier dig diaries at http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/ (archive link)



Note: Nick Card, Anne Mitchell and Mark Edmonds In Conversation on the Ness of Brodgar for an hour on BBC Radio Orkney - the link to listen is our page
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Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : An oblique view of the main trench from the 2016 Ness of Brodgar excavations, looking east. Photo Credit: Ness of Brodgar Excavations (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : The latest decorated stone found by the Ness of Brodgar excavation team. Image credit: Ola Thoenies / Ness of Brodgar Excavation Team (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : The stunning polished stone axehead found in Structure Fourteen in 2014. Photo Credit: ORCA (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : The Ness of Brodgar, a recently-discovered neolithic site close to the Ring of Brodgar. It is thought to be more important than more ordinary villages such as Scara Brae, perhaps either a rich village or a more communal place and not a village at all. Only a month before my visit, the archaeologists had found decoratively painted stone (as opposed to art) - the first evidence of this in neolithic ... (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : A close-up of some of the finely incised designs. Image credit: Ola Thoenies / Ness of Brodgar Excavation Team (1 comment)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar. A reconstruction of these prehistorical, beautiful and unforgettable place in Orkney West Mainland (Scotland) How may Ness of Brodgar have been (thousands of) years ago Image copyright: Germà Martín, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : One side of the newly discovered carved stone from the Ness of Brodgar. Image Credit: Orca

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by mgts24 : A decorated stone found in structure 10 in July 2013.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Archaeology and performance: excavating Neolithic art at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney - by Antonia Thomas O.R.C.A. Image copyright: Royal Anthropological Institute's Education Dept. (Discover Anthropology), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Dig at ness of brodgar - measuring More pictures of the archeological dig in Orkney this summer. While two have a conversation about some aspect,the man on the left measure the depth of the pit he stands in. Image copyright: seligr, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar Image copyright: JanuaryJoe, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar is an archaeological site covering 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres) between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site near Loch of Harray, Orkney, in Scotland Image copyright: -Glyn-, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by mgts24 : This is a decorated stone found in structure 10 in July 2013. The lines are deeply incised, with a v-profile. (4 comments)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by LizH : This is interesting structure which at present shows a clear 'W' shape at the right hand side. Once again, it is not clear what this is yet.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar Dig Panorama Orkney, Scotland. Image copyright: Dave Cleghorn, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar archaeological dig, Orkney, Scotland Image copyright: Dave Cleghorn, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : Antonia and Georgie from the excavation team finally remove the decorated stone after several days of careful preparation. Image credit: Ola Thoenies / Ness of Brodgar Excavation Team

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by wildtalents : Structures uncovered at the Ness Of Brodgar, photographed in July 2015

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by TAlanJones : Overview of the site (Aug 2017).

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by TAlanJones : Dig director Nick Card (left) chatting with a colleague.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by TAlanJones : Dig director Nick Card overlooking the site Aug 2017.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by dodomad : All three fragments of the ‘Butterfly’ stone slab from Structure Twelve. Photo Credit: Antonia Thomas)

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by markj99 : An overview of the Ness of Brodgar Excavation as at 07.08.12.

Ness of Brodgar
Ness of Brodgar submitted by Flickr : Ness of Brodgar exhibtion, August 2015. Stromness Museum Image copyright: da5idgpk, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

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 59m SW 225° Brodgar Farm Chambered Tomb Chambered Tomb (HY302129)
 152m SSE 157° Brodgar Farm Standing Stones* Standing Stones (HY303128)
 210m SE 131° Lochview Mound* Cairn (HY304128)
 429m SE 133° Watch Stone (Orkney)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY30551264)
 569m ESE 114° Barnhouse Settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY30761270)
 598m SE 134° Stenness* Stone Circle (HY30671252)
 714m WNW 301° Comet Stone (Orkney)* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY2963413318)
 782m NW 304° Fresh Knowe* Long Barrow (HY29601339)
 809m W 272° Fairy Well (Stenness)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (HY2943212982)
 890m WNW 296° Ring of Brodgar* Stone Circle (HY29451335)
 897m WNW 291° South Knowe* Artificial Mound (HY29411328)
 909m W 269° Possible large stone circle in Loch of Stenness Stone Circle (HY2933112934)
 927m NW 306° Plumcake Mound* Round Barrow(s) (HY295135)
 1.0km WNW 290° Salt Knowe* Round Barrow(s) (HY293133)
 1.3km SE 126° Barnhouse Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (HY31271217)
 1.3km S 179° Standing Stones Hotel* Chambered Cairn (HY30251165)
 1.5km NNE 30° Grimston Broch* Broch or Nuraghe (HY310142)
 1.5km NNE 30° Campston (Grimeston)* Broch or Nuraghe (HY310142)
 1.5km WNW 302° Wasbister Burnt Mound* Artificial Mound (HY28961378)
 1.5km WNW 298° Wasbister Disc Barrow* Round Barrow(s) (HY289137)
 1.5km WNW 298° Dyke o'Sean* Ancient Village or Settlement (HY289137)
 1.6km E 95° Maes Howe* Chambered Cairn (HY31821277)
 1.6km NE 49° Vola* Round Barrow(s) (HY31471395)
 1.6km NW 305° Bookan Cairns* Cairn (HY289139)
 1.7km NW 309° Bookan Stones* Standing Stones (HY28921406)
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Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

Lines on the Landscape, Circles from the Sky: Monuments of Neolithic Orkney

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BBC Radio Orkney - In Conversation at the Ness of Brodgar by Andy B on Thursday, 24 October 2024
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Cameron speaks to the three directors of Orkney's renowned Ness of Brodgar archaeological dig - Nick Card, Anne Mitchell and Professor Mark Edmonds. They talk about their final season of excavations before it was filled in and covered over for the last time in August. They look back at the past 20 years of discoveries and reveal the years of work yet to complete before the artefacts and structures they have uncovered can be properly analysed and understood.

Broadcast last night, the programme is available on BBC Sounds for 31 days.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0024ssx

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Brave New World: a palaeoecological investigation into Neolithic interactions by Andy B on Friday, 09 February 2024
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In February 2023, UHI Archaeology Institute Masters by Research (MRes) student Sue Dyke began a research project to reconstruct the landscape around the Ness of Brodgar using pollen samples taken from the Loch of Stenness by The Rising Tides project team in 2014 (Bates et al. 2012, 2016).

Entitled Brave New World: a palaeoecological investigation into Neolithic human-environment interactions on Ness of Brodgar Isthmus, Orkney - here Sue updates us on the progress so far:
www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/landscape-prehistoric/
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Ness of Brodgar open days, 5th July to 18th August by Andy B on Sunday, 02 July 2023
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The penultimate season of excavation at the Ness of Brodgar gets under way tomorrow, with the site open to the public from Wednesday 5th July with the dig running until August 18th.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the site’s discovery – in a field half-way between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Since then, archaeological research has uncovered an astonishing array of Neolithic structures (3700-2500BC) and a biography spanning millennia – from traces of Mesolithic (9000-4000BC) activity to the site’s Neolithic heyday, through to the early Bronze Age (2500-800BC) and a later episode of use in the Iron Age (800BC-AD800).

At its zenith, in the main phase currently under investigation (around 3100BC), the Ness was dominated by huge, free-standing buildings flanked by massive stone walls.

This was much more than a domestic settlement: the size, quality, and architecture of the structures, together with evidence for tiled roofs, coloured walls, and over 900 examples of decorated stone – not to mention the rich assemblages of artefacts recovered from them – all add to an overall sense of the Ness being special in some way.

More at
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/07/02/ness-of-brodgar-2023-2/ )
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Digging at Ness of Brodgar to end in 2024 with focus shifting to post-excavation work by Andy B on Wednesday, 15 March 2023
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The final season of excavation at the Ness of Brodgar will take place in 2024, after which the remains of the 5,000-year-old Neolithic complex will be covered over and backfilled.

The project is managed by the Ness of Brodgar Trust, in partnership with the UHI Archaeology Institute, and has uncovered a complex of monumental Neolithic buildings in Orkney. The size, quality, and architecture of the structures, together with evidence for tiled roofs, coloured walls, decorated stone and stunning artefacts has seen the Ness hit the headlines regularly over the past two decades.

But although on-site excavation is ending, research at the Ness of Brodgar continues. It is simply moving into a new and exciting phase of intensive work, with the focus on scientific analysis of all the recovered material – pottery, stone tools, bone and much more – found on site.

This must be fully catalogued and examined by specialists. The results, along with those from the environmental samples, will help unpick the story of the people who built, used and ultimately abandoned the site in the centuries around 2500BC.

The Ness of Brodgar excavations will be open to the public from July 5 to August 16, 2023, and next year from July 3, 2024, until the end of August 2024, funding permitting.

Click here for full details.

With thanks to UHI for the new.
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Excavations resume at the Ness of Brodgar, running until August 19th by Andy B on Thursday, 07 July 2022
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Excavation resumes at the Ness of Brodgar, from Monday, July 4, 2022, running until Friday, August 19, 2022.

They write: Unlike 2021, which only saw three structures uncovered, this year we intend to fully open all the trenches and the site will be open to the public on weekdays, from 9.30am-4.30pm, between July 6 and August 17, 2022. Please note that outside these dates the site is not open to the public and the archaeology covered over.

Please check the site opening times – it is not open all day, every day.
There is no entry to the excavation if the main gates are closed and there is no staff on site.
Please do not drop passengers off at the site entrance – the road is busy and potentially dangerous.
In bad weather the site may close at very short notice.

Site tours
Free tours of the excavation will take place on weekdays at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

More details here
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/visit/

The Ness team gave a presentation to last year's Orkney Science Festival: archaeologists are back in action at the Ness of Brodgar this summer, with an audience worldwide wondering what may emerge next from the site. Meanwhile some fascinating insights are coming from the study of the finds, including the various stone artefacts, as excavation director Nick Card of the UHI Archaeology Institute team at Orkney College explains.

Dr Martha Johnson highlights the rocks that don’t fit the local geology, and shows clues to their origins. Ann Clarke looks at the stone tools and their uses and users. Dr Antonia Thomas describes the main themes that have emerged from research on the carved stones. Several of the speakers are Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland who’re hosting and highlighting the session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgZVYeZp-u8


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    Time for the old house to die? – henges and houses in the Neolithic by Andy B on Thursday, 07 July 2022
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    Sigurd Towrie writes: In past articles we have looked at expedient architecture, in particular the idea that some Neolithic buildings may have been hastily built, perhaps dismantled or simply left to become ruinous.

    This is not restricted to structures.

    At the Ring of Brodgar, for example, the shallow stone sockets encountered during the 2008 excavation is a strong indicator that the megaliths were not meant to endure. Instead they could be easily erected and taken down. Alternatively, were the Brodgar megaliths meant to – or expected to – fall down over time?

    Along the same lines, did the natural deterioration of houses, aided by deliberate and careful dismantling, play an important part in the life of a Neolithic settlement?

    We know from the Ness of Brodgar and settlement sites such as Skara Brae and Barnhouse, that structures were replaced, usually on the same site, but slightly offset.

    We tend to talk of Neolithic houses being demolished and rebuilt almost in an industrial, production-line fashion — one comes down. Another goes up. Simple. There must have been more to it than that.

    https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/time-for-the-old-house-to-die-henges-and-houses-in-the-neolithic/
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Ness of Brodgar artefacts in British Museum’s ‘World of Stonehenge’ exhibition by Andy B on Saturday, 19 February 2022
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Artefacts from the Ness of Brodgar – one of the UHI Archaeology Institute’s flagship excavations – are among the hundreds brought together for a special exhibition on Stonehenge at the British Museum.

The spectacular polished stone ‘sky’ axe from Structure Fourteen being packed up ready for transport to the British Museum. (Anne Mitchell)

Among the Ness artefacts on temporary loan to the museum are the “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.

Excavation at the Ness of Brodgar is due to resume on July 4, running until August 19, 2022.

More at
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2022/02/17/ness-of-brodgar-artefacts-in-british-museums-world-of-stonehenge-exhibition/
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‘Every year it astounds us’: the Orkney dig uncovering Britain’s stone age culture by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 February 2022
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Archaeologists excavating the windswept Ness of Brodgar are unearthing a treasure trove of neolithic villages, tombs, weapons and mysterious religious artefacts, some to be displayed in a blockbuster exhibition - by Charlotte Higgins

If you happen to imagine that there’s not much left to discover of Britain’s stone age, or that its relics consist of hard-to-love postholes and scraps of bones, then you need to find your way to Orkney, that scatter of islands off Scotland’s north-east coast. On the archipelago’s Mainland, out towards the windswept west coast with its wave-battered cliffs, you will come to the Ness of Brodgar, an isthmus separating a pair of sparkling lochs, one of saltwater and one of freshwater. Just before the way narrows you’ll see the Stones of Stenness rising up before you. This ancient stone circle’s monoliths were once more numerous, but they remain elegant and imposing. Like a gateway into a liminal world of theatricality and magic, they lead the eye to another, even larger neolithic monument beyond the isthmus, elevated in the landscape as if on a stage. This is the Ring of Brodgar, its sharply individuated stones like giant dancers arrested mid-step – as local legend, indeed, has it.

It’s between these two stone circles that archaeologist Nick Card and his team are excavating a huge settlement of neolithic stone buildings. The earliest date from about 3300BC, their walls and hearths crisply intact, their pots and stone tools in remarkable profusion, the whole bounded by six-metre-wide monumental walls. “You could continue for several lifetimes and not get to the bottom of it,” says the neatly white-bearded, laconic Card as we gaze out over the site, presently covered with tarpaulin to protect it from the winter storms. “Every year it never fails to produce something that astounds us.” After nearly two decades of digging, they have excavated only about 10% of its area, and about 5% of its volume. It goes deep: buildings are stacked on the ruins of older ones; the place was in use for 1,000 years. When summer comes, they’ll dig again. When the coverings come off each July, says Card’s colleague, Anne Mitchell, “down you go and you’re among the ghosts of the past”.

More in
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/feb/15/orkney-ghosts-of-past-world-of-stonehenge-british-museum
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Ness of Brodgar 5000 year old fingerprints found on a clay pot. by Runemage on Saturday, 19 June 2021
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The Orcadian has a couple of very short articles and a photo of prehistoric fingerprints in a piece of pottery from the Ness dig.

https://www.orcadian.co.uk/archaeologists-discover-5000-year-old-fingerprint/

https://www.orcadian.co.uk/prehistoric-fingerprints-identified/
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Friday, 20 March 2020
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Ness 2020 dig cancelled
This is a link
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by Anonymous on Friday, 06 December 2019
Hi
Thinking of the Ness of Brodgar and sea levels 6000 years ago, we see what is remaining a small long slither of land, but if sea levels were much lower in the past is it possible that a cause of the settlement being abandoned was the gradual rise in sea levels and maybe the forming of the inner loch.

Ricky Clark
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Ness of Brodgar exhibition opens in Stromness Museum by Andy B on Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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The summer’s excavation on the Ness of Brodgar revealed a wealth of new artefacts and finds and a number of these, along with a selection of plans and photographs, are now on display at the Stromness Museum until March 31, 2019.

The museum, at 52 Alfred Street, Stromness, is open daily from 11am until 3.30pm until December 31. After a winter break, it re-opens on February 5.

"From the Trowel’s Edge" runs until March 31, 2019

http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ness-2018-artefacts-unveiled-at-stromness-museum-exhibition/
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Exceptional Stone Axe Discoveries at the Ness of Brodgar shed light on Neolithic Life by Andy B on Wednesday, 08 August 2018
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The Ness of Brodgar is one of the largest and most important Neolithic excavations in Northern Europe. The dig is continuing to reveal an increasingly large complex of monumental Neolithic structures together with ‘artwork’, over 30,000 pieces of pottery, large assemblages of bones and stone tools – including over 30 unique stone axes.

Last week archaeologists from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and the Ness of Brodgar Trust unearthed two polished stone axes in quick succession – items that give us a glimpse into the lives of the people who constructed this stone complex 5000 years ago.

The first axe was discovered in the closing moments of Thursday in the new trench on the shore of Loch of Stenness. The expertly worked and polished object was the largest axe so far discovered on site and had been heavily used and damaged at the cutting edge.

Nick Card, Site Director, said, “It is nice to find pristine examples of stone axes, but the damage on this one tells us a little bit more about the history of this particular axe. The fact that the cutting edge had been heavily damaged suggests that it was a working tool rather than a ceremonial object. We know that the buildings in the complex were roofed by stone slabs so this axe was perhaps used to cut and fashion the timber joists that held up the heavy roof.”

The second axe was discovered by one of our students, Therese McCormick, from Australia who’s volunteered at the Ness of Brodgar. This stone axe astonished the archaeologists on site through its sheer quality of workmanship. The Gneiss stone had been chosen so that the natural coloured banding was reflected in the shape of the item and then expertly worked and polished to create an object of beauty.

More at
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2018/08/07/exceptional-stone-axe-discoveries-at-the-ness-of-brodgar-shed-light-on-neolithic-life-in-orkney/
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Ness of Brodgar to a ‘T’ – pre-excavation lecture by Nick Card now online by Andy B on Tuesday, 03 July 2018
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The nice people at the Ness of Brodgar excavation have kindly put online a video of site director Nick Card's pre-excavation lecture held in Kirkwall on the 21st of June.

The talk, hosted by the Orkney Archaeology Society, was entitled Ness of Brodgar to a ‘T’ and looked back over last year’s discoveries and the plans for 2018 – in particular work scheduled for the enigmatic Trench T and the massive structure that lies at its bottom.

View online
http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/lecture2018/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en5wLLgloB0

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Ness of Brodgar 2018 excavations begin - online dig diary by Andy B on Tuesday, 03 July 2018
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The plans for 2018 – include an investigation of the enigmatic Trench T and the massive structure that lies at its bottom.

Dig Diary will evolve here
http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/category/excavation/
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The Ness of Brodgar- A look back over the Summer 2017 Excavations by Andy B on Thursday, 21 December 2017
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Including find of a tiny incense cup which links the site to the Stonehenge area.

Hints at links between the Ness of Brodgar and the Stonehenge area were unearthed this summer, during a record-breaking season at the Stenness site. Over the eight-week excavation, around 21,500 visitors made their way to the Ness, where a team of international diggers were hard at work on the Stone Age complex. At the helm, as usual, was site director Nick Card, of the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute.

Once again, the Ness lived up to its reputation of throwing up lots of new questions, but also some magnificent finds. Of particular interest this year were the two items that suggest contact between Orkney and the Stonehenge area. The first of these was a fragment of pot recovered from a trench extension over Structure Twenty-Six. This came as something of a surprise as the decoration on the sherd was very reminiscent of pottery from Durrington Walls . That said, there were also distinctly Orcadian features, which led us to wonder whether the original vessel blended decorative elements from these two world-renowned sites – but which were hundreds of miles apart.

Parallels between the Orkney and Wessex sites have been noted before — particularly when Mike Parker Pearson, who excavated at Durrington Walls, visited the Ness in 2010 and 2014 — but a second discovery in Structure Twenty-Six brought these back into the spotlight.

On the surface, it didn’t seem very significant but, thankfully, Claire Copper, who had just finished a research project on these artefacts, immediately recognised it for what it was — a beautiful little ‘incense cup’. After much checking, we were delighted when it was confirmed the cup was what we thought it was. There are only four other examples of this particular type of ‘cup’ in the UK and they all hail from the Stonehenge area.

These tiny artefacts are often highly decorated and mostly found in Early Bronze Age contexts — often associated with burials. Their use has been the subject of debate over the years. It has been suggested that they were used to carry embers to a funeral pyre, or perhaps for the burning of incense during burial ceremonies.

Elsewhere on site, it seems likely that the “Great Wall of Brodgar” was one of the first constructions on site. The four-metre-thick wall was unearthed in 2007. Shortly afterwards, the discovery of a second wall — to the south-east of the site — prompted the theory that the complex was completely enclosed.

More at
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2017/12/20/the-ness-of-brodgar-summer-2017/
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    Incense cups by Andy B on Thursday, 21 December 2017
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    There's an 'incense cup' referred to here:

    ..the belief in a race of little men who lived under the earth may stem from the first interaction of the Celts with the indigenous Bronze Age people. When from time to time, a howe was opened for some purpose, possibly to win stone, if the so-called incense cups were found, they were regarded as proof of the presence of little men.

    The North York Moors. An Introduction. Stanhope White. 1979

    Photo of the incense cup in a museum here
    https://teessidepsychogeography.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/crown-end-2/
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Ness of Brodgar "Incense Cup" found by Runemage on Saturday, 22 July 2017
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"Incense Cup" found at the Ness

"It has a slightly “waisted” profile, shallow-dished upper surface and is similar size to the others in this group.
Is this another cup? If so, it is very rare, with only four other examples known and all from around the Wessex area. This makes it even more intriguing."

More details on the Ness Dig site https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/dig-diary-thursday-july-20-2017/
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Celebrate Neolithic Orkney - but leave out Stonehenge by Andy B on Wednesday, 25 January 2017
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Kenny Brophy responds to the theory put forward in the programmes:

... All of this is summed up in the nonsensical title for the show Britain’s Ancient Capital, which makes no sense in a Neolithic context, a time when there was no Britain, no Scotland, no England; the concept ‘cultural capital’ misunderstands the nature of social organisation in the fourth millennium BC, how society worked back then and how people perceived their world. Perhaps most disappointing of all in this narrative is that, not only does it simply rehash one of the more tired old clichés of British prehistory, it casts Orkney not as a spectacular place in its own right, but merely the appetiser in the run up to the emergence of the main course, the “supremacy of Stonehenge”. This should be all about Orkney – but it was not. Why?

In many respects, therefore, the underlying premise of Britain’s Ancient Capital was not an innovative and exciting new development, but rather an argument that could have been written in the 1950s, repeating tropes and traps that I had hoped were consigned to the history of prehistory writing.

Almost nowhere else in Britain did communities replicate the great excesses of Orkney because Orkney was not a cultural capital, it was a strange cult centre where they were building retro tombs, making the same style of pots for 1000 years, obsessively building bigger and better, and replicating the same architectural motifs across a wide range of structures with different functions. If I was looking for a modern ‘parallel’ for Orkney (rather than falling back on Easter Island clichés) I would suggest Summerisle, the fictional island in the 1973 movie The Wicker Man.

http://theislandreview.com/content/bbc-neolithic-orkney-neil-oliver-kenneth-brophy-archaeology-stonehenge
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Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney, BBC2 TV, Jan 2017 by Andy B on Thursday, 12 January 2017
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You no doubt don't need me to tell you about the series Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney, BBC2 TV

Neil Oliver, Chris Packham, Andy Torbet and Dr Shini Somara join hundreds of archaeologists from around the world who have gathered in Orkney to investigate at one of Europe's biggest digs.

Orkney - seven miles off the coast of Scotland and cut off by the tumultuous Pentland Firth, the fastest flowing tidal race in Europe, is often viewed as being remote. But recent discoveries there are turning the stone age map of Britain upside down. Rather than an outpost at the edge of the world, recent finds suggest an extraordinary theory - that Orkney was the cultural capital of our ancient world and the origin of the stone circle cult which culminated in Stonehenge.

But just to say we have an active forum thread discussing each episode:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=7206&forum=1&start=0

The programme itself is here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08819tl
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Ness of Brodgar Guide Book for Sale online by Andy B on Thursday, 12 January 2017
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One way in which you can help fund the excavation is to purchase a Ness of Brodgar Guide Book. This richly illustrated, 34 page book explains the history of the site in detail and looks at the work that is being completed at this important Neolithic Site.

The introductory paragraph to the guidebook introduces the Ness: ”Fifteen generations separate the early settlers on the Orkney archipelago from the architects of the Ness of Brodgar – an island centre that would endure for 60 generations. The last occupants left the Ness 4000 years ago and for 200 generations it has lain, forgotten, beneath the plough.”

Contents include:
The Ness Through Time
What is the Ness of Brodgar
Discovery and Excavation
The Ness in the Landscape
Monumental Buildings
Phenomenal Pottery
Mace Heads, Axes and Carved Stone Balls
Art of Stone
Structure 1
Structures 8 and 14 – Multiple Piers and Painted Walls
Structure 10 – 400 Head of Cattle
Structure 12 – Master Builders
Great Walls and Great Mounds
Who were the People of the Ness
The Big Questions

Size: 17cm x 22.5cm, 30 pages, colour photographs, written by the dig team.

Cost £6.00 plus shipping:

UK: 1st copy £2.50, additional copies £0.50 extra each
Europe: 1st copy £5.50, additional copies £0.75 extra each
USA & Canada: 1st copy £6.50, additional copies £1.25 extra each
Rest of the World: 1st copy £7.50, additional copies £1.35 extra each

The money raised goes directly to making the Ness of Brodgar work each year.
You can buy on-line through the Ness of Brodgar Trust website
http://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/buy-the-guidebook/4589691909
or http://www.nessofbrodgar.com/
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The Ness of Brodgar US & Canada Lecture Tour with Nick Card, February and March 2017 by Andy B on Thursday, 12 January 2017
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Nick Card, Site Director Ness of Brodgar, looks forward to presenting the exciting story of the Neolithic site to members of the Archaeological Institute of America.
A series of lectures have been arranged to detail the secrets of the spectacular Ness of Brodgar Neolithic complex to members of The Archaeological Institute of America in February and March 2017. Lectures are free to the public, and all are welcome.

Due to the level of interest generated in the Ness of Brodgar, lectures are still being added, but to date, the tour takes in 16 locations and starts on 16th February and finishes on April 2nd. Nick will travel over 12,000 km in the process!

Lectures: Secrets of the Ness of Brodgar: a Stone-Age Complex in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site

February 21, AIA Society: Salem

February 23, AIA Society: Bozeman

February 26, AIA Society: North Coast

February 28, AIA Society: Tucson

March 6, AIA Society: San Joaquin Valley

March 8, AIA Society: Southern Nevada (Las Vegas)

March 11, AIA Society: Denver

March 14, AIA Society: St. Louis

March 19, AIA Society: Ottawa, ON

March 21, AIA Society: Athens

March 23, AIA Society: Western Carolina (Brevard/Asheville)

March 26, AIA Society: Long Island

March 29, AIA Society: Springfield

More at
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2017/01/05/the-ness-on-tour-in-the-usa/
and
https://www.archaeological.org/lecture_list?lecturer=21633
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Ness of Brodgar 2016 Dig Diary by Andy B on Thursday, 11 August 2016
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A wealth of photos and information in this year's Ness of Brodgar Dig Diary
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

3D reconstruction of a complete pillow stone
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2016/07/diary-extra-3d-reconstruction-of-a-complete-pillow-stone/

Structure Eight’s rosette stone
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2016/07/dig-diary-thursday-july-28-2016/

The cup-marked stone from Structure Ten.
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2016/08/dig-diary-wednesday-august-10-2016/

Aerial views
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2016/08/dig-diary-monday-august-1-2016/
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2016/08/dig-diary-extra-zoom-in-and-get-up-close-to-trench-p/

See also an interview with Nick Card the site director
http://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/orkney-blog/ness-of-brodgar/
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‘One of the most remarkable decorated stones we’ve ever seen’ by Runemage on Sunday, 06 September 2015
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From the Ness dig diary Mon Aug 17th

"On this remarkable, sunny day we can do one of two things. We can ransack our box full of superlatives to describe what has happened, or just ask you to look at the photographs. Go for the pics, kindly supplied by Ola Thoenies (thank you Ola!)

Now we’ll tell you all about it. Last week, digging in the area of Structure Eight, and possibly in Structure Seventeen which underlies it, Georgie found herself uncovering one of the most remarkable decorated stones we have ever seen.

It has deeply incised banded decoration consisting of a series of carved parallel lines, infilled with decoration including lattice and saltire-like patterns.

See the photos above and for more info: http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/2015/08/dig-diary-monday-august-17-2015/
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Re: Ness of Brodgar excavations. Cattle bones? by AngieLake on Saturday, 29 November 2014
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It might be best not to look too long at this article about the ritual mass slaughter of buffalo in Nepal, as it is truly gruesome, and unbelievable that something like this can happen in this day and age. However, it did remind me of the mention of a vast quantity of cattle bones discovered during the Ness of Brodgar excavations, so is it possible something similar happened then?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852739/Nepal-devotees-sacrifice-thousands-animals-Hindu-ritual.html

I haven't followed this site page for a long while and quickly scanning through it now (after midnight) can't see the previous refs! Hope I didn't 'mis-remember'!
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Re: Ness of Brodgar, Artists Impression from Nat. Geographic by AngieLake on Wednesday, 16 July 2014
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This super, clickable, artists' impression of the settlement at the Ness of Brodgar shows it enclosed in its huge walls with its standing stones and huge midden heap.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/neolithic-orkney/brodgar-graphic

I don't know if you will need to register to view it?

They add:
"Discovered little more than a decade ago, this mysterious temple complex is now believed to be the epicenter of what was once a vast ritualistic landscape. The site’s extraordinary planning, craftsmanship, and thousand-year history are helping rewrite our entire understanding of Neolithic Britain."
"Circa 2800 B.C. The scene depicted here shows the Ness of Brodgar site in its heyday. The complex was remade several times and constantly evolved throughout its thousand-year period of use."
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by Anonymous on Thursday, 12 September 2013
Hello. I know what mean the symbols. They written Hungarian runic symbols.

Best regards from Hungary


Istvan Vallus
[email protected]
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by enjaytom on Sunday, 01 September 2013
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Greetings Everyone,
The Brodgar Ness stone artefact face and its petroglyph message I interpret as follows: -
Twelve 'squares' are divided corner to corner by cross lines forming triangles, one has added petroglyph information, the other is empty.
There were twelve months in the ancient Moon calendar, full moon to New Moon and return to full Moon, 30 and 29 nights months alternating. The Ness of Brodgar Moon year calendar stone is a statement of the lunar behaviour.
Until a clearer image is available and the lower right corner is fully exposed, my interpretation has a question mark.
The Ness Moon Calendar Stone requires attention and TLC.
Not far away is the Ring of Brodgar with positions for twelve stone columns, another indication of a dedication to the Moon deity. Across the Irish sea is Ireland and the Dowth passage mound with very strong links to the Moon deity. Bingo, a score!
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Carved Stone Ball found by howar on Wednesday, 07 August 2013
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Today the site has produced its first carved stone ball, ironically found by a non-drinker as the discovery prize is whisky. I'm sure the excavation blog will mention it, so look on Orkneyjar tonight I guess. It follows the usual Orcadian form and has round bossed faces.
They still have a long way to catch up to the 'domestic' Skara Brae settlement with over half-a-dozen. Elsewhere three were found at the Hillheads in St Ola (one from the circular enclosure/fort) and one each from Sanday, the Links of Noltland in Westray (last year), Orphir (thought to be from Bu [geophys found a double ring feature in the Bu area]), an unidentified Bignor in Stenness itself, and lastly one at Tamaskirk in Rendall.
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Carved Stone found at structure 10 by Runemage on Friday, 02 August 2013
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A carved stone uncovered on the Ness of Brodgar today [31 July 2013] has been hailed as the finest example of Neolithic art recovered from the Stenness excavation site – if not in the UK.

The stone, which is decorated on both sides, was discovered at the base of the later south-west internal corner buttresses in Structure Ten – the Neolithic “cathedral”.

Although designs of interconnecting triangles can be loosely paralleled on a slab discovered at Skara Brae in the 1970s, a lightly inscribed stone in Maeshowe discovered by Patrick Ashmore in the 1980s and some Irish art, this, say the excavators, is a much finer, and more complex, piece of art.

Image of one side of this stone
http://www.orcadian.co.uk/2013/07/the-finest-example-of-neolithic-art-from-the-ness-of-brodgar-to-date/
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Ness of Brodgar Excavations run from July 17th until August 21st by Runemage on Monday, 24 June 2013
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A comprehensive up to date listing of finds and theories including the upcoming excavations on the Neolithic site on Ness of Brodgar, in Stenness, which will resume on July 15, 2013, running until August 23. During this time, the dig will be open to the public, with daily guided tours, from July 17 until August 21.
More at http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/
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Neolithic clay figurine found during Orkney 2011 excavation by bat400 on Monday, 24 June 2013
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Meet the newest member of a small and very special family: the ‘Brodgar Boy’. Archaeologists found this tiny clay figurine while working on a spectacular Neolithic settlement complex between two stone circles on the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney.
Measuring just 30mm long with a clearly-defined head, body, and eyes, the crude model is one of the earliest representations of the human form to be found in Britain. Just two more like it have been found in Orkney before, both on the island of Westray, including the ‘Orkney Venus’ (locally nicknamed the ‘Westray Wifey’).
Unlike the Orkney Venus, which was carefully carved from a sandstone pebble and etched with clear female characteristics, the Brodgar Boy does not seem to have been created from scratch. The lower edge is broken, suggesting it might have originally been part of a larger clay object and was turned into a figurine after being damaged.
While archaeologists have speculated that the Orkney Venus may have served a ritual purpose, representing a goddess or ancestor, Nick Card of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA), who is directing excavations at the Ness of Brodgar, suggested that this latest find might represent something more personal – perhaps a casual piece of art, or even a lost toy.


He said: ‘It’s not a beautifully carved piece of craftsmanship. It’s probably been part of another object at one time and when it broke, the fragment was perhaps then reworked into this little figurine.'
He added: ‘But it’s still a beautiful little find; an interesting little curio that, in amongst all the massive structures and monumental architecture on the Ness, gives us a more personal glimpse of the people who once frequented this area.’

The Brodgar Boy was discovered last Thursday – during the 2011 digging season of a Neolithic settlement, possibly occupied for 1500 years from as early as 3500 BC, which lies within a large walled enclosure covering an area of some two hectares between the stone circles of Brodgar and Stenness.

This land had long been assumed to be reserved for ritual and funerary monuments, but in 2002 everything changed when a geophysical survey found evidence of a huge domestic complex. Small-scale investigations began the following year while open site excavations have been under way since 2007 (see Current Archaeology 241, or read an extract here).

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For more see the article by Carl Hilts at http://www.archaeology.co.uk>
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Re: Neolithic village found in Orkney sheds new light on Stone Age life by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 February 2013
the garden of eden
gobekli tepe,,, stone henge,,, brodgar ness
all the trees in the garden of eden enclosed
[email protected]
the painter
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Friday, 30 November 2012
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video of Nick Card's lecture at the Glasgow Archaeological Society
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Ness of Brodgar - Authorised video by howar on Thursday, 25 October 2012
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Video from Archaeology Safaris, with stills. From August, also includes a little from other sites in area.
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    Re: Ness of Brodgar - Authorised video by AngieLake on Thursday, 25 October 2012
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    Thanks for posting this up Howar, and thank you very much indeed, Adam, for sharing your excellent film and stills with us. (I'm always wishing I had a camera strapped to the car when driving solo!)

    Brings back wonderful memories of a week in 2001, passing this every day while staying at Netherstove farm near Skaill Bay and Skara Brae.

    Did some really amazing dowsing around there, too!
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Ness of Brodgar - Authorised video by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 February 2013
      the most interesting thing in the universe is man ,,, plato
      thanks for the kinda artsy fartsy wispy up to day dig
      [email protected]
      tell gobekli stonehedge and this dig are all the garden of eden
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why Orkney is the centre of ancient Britain by neolithique02 on Monday, 08 October 2012
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Long before the Egyptians began the pyramids, Neolithic man built a vast temple complex at the top of what is now Scotland. Robin McKie visits the astonishing Ness of Brodgar

Drive west from Orkney's capital, Kirkwall, and then head north on the narrow B9055 and you will reach a single stone monolith that guards the entrance to a spit of land known as the Ness of Brodgar. The promontory separates the island's two largest bodies of freshwater, the Loch of Stenness and the Loch of Harray. At their furthest edges, the lochs' peaty brown water laps against fields and hills that form a natural amphitheatre; a landscape peppered with giant rings of stone, chambered cairns, ancient villages and other archaeological riches.

This is the heartland of the Neolithic North, a bleak, mysterious place that has made Orkney a magnet for archaeologists, historians and other researchers. For decades they have tramped the island measuring and ex- cavating its great Stone Age sites. The land was surveyed, mapped and known until a recent chance discovery revealed that for all their attention, scientists had completely overlooked a Neolithic treasure that utterly eclipses all others on Orkney – and in the rest of Europe.

This is the temple complex of the Ness of Brodgar, and its size, complexity and sophistication have left archaeologists desperately struggling to find superlatives to describe the wonders they found there. "We have discovered a Neolithic temple complex that is without parallel in western Europe. Yet for decades we thought it was just a hill made of glacial moraine," says discoverer Nick Card of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology. "In fact the place is entirely manmade, although it covers more than six acres of land."

Once protected by two giant walls, each more than 100m long and 4m high, the complex at Ness contained more than a dozen large temples – one measured almost 25m square – that were linked to outhouses and kitchens by carefully constructed stone pavements. The bones of sacrificed cattle, elegantly made pottery and pieces of painted ceramics lie scattered round the site. The exact purpose of the complex is a mystery, though it is clearly ancient. Some parts were constructed more than 5,000 years ago.

The people of the Neolithic – the new Stone Age – were the first farmers in Britain, and they arrived on Orkney about 6,000 years ago. They cultivated the land, built farmsteads and rapidly established a vibrant culture, erecting giant stone circles, chambered communal tombs – and a giant complex of buildings at the Ness of Brodgar. The religious beliefs that underpinned these vast works is unknown, however, as is the purpose of the Brodgar temples.

"This wasn't a settlement or a place for the living," says archaeologist Professor Colin Richards of Manchester University, who excavated the nearby Barnhouse settlement in the 1980s. "This was a ceremonial centre, and a vast one at that. But the religious beliefs of its builders remain a mystery."

What is clear is that the cultural energy of the few thousand farming folk of Orkney dwarfed those of other civilisations at that time. In size and sophistication, the Ness of Brodgar is comparable with Stonehenge or the wonders of ancient Egypt. Yet the temple complex predates them all. The fact that this great stately edifice was constructed on Orkney, an island that has become a byword for remoteness, makes the site's discovery all the more remarkable. For many archaeologists, its discovery has revolutionised our understanding of ancient Britain.

"We need to turn the map of Britain upside down when we consider the Neolithic and shrug off our south-centric attitudes," says Card, now Brodgar's director of excavations. "London may be the cultural hub of Britain today, but 5,000 years ago, Orkney was the centre for innovation for the British isles. Ideas spread from this place. The first grooved pottery, which is so distinctive of the era, was

Read the rest of this post...
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General Area Overview by Runemage on Saturday, 25 August 2012
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The Ring of Brodgar in the foreground shows the area of the ongoing Ness excavations right down to the Stenness circle. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xHLXPIwfqWg/T-8nJIzEWPI/AAAAAAAACGg/OLWFqMHpckY/s1600/Orkney_KAP_Ring_of_Brodgar.jpg

This shows the Stones of Stenness with the Barnhouse settlement which is contemporary with the Ness buildings currently being excavated. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8pOnqaXMb5I/T-8nLocvYaI/AAAAAAAACGo/7fXovNsmsmE/s1600/Orkney_KAP_Standing_Stones_of_Stenness.jpg

Thanks to cerrig for finding this site
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Visualising Neolithic Orkney blog by Anonymous on Tuesday, 24 July 2012
A visualisation inside House 7 at Skara Brae. A quick peek at the final scene of the animation Aaron Watson and Kieran Baxter have been working on:

http://visualisingneolithicorkney.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/168/

see also
http://digitaldirtvirtualpasts.wordpress.com

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Ness of Brodgar 2012 dig diary and tours daily until Wednesday August 22nd by Andy B on Tuesday, 24 July 2012
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An extract from Monday's dig diary: An exciting discovery within Structure Ten is a human tooth. It was found while trowelling back just beyond the central hearth.

Although over the years we have recovered a few fragments of human remains associated with Structure Ten, they have all been within the collapse and general infill – this is the first piece to be recovered from a secure context, perhaps relating to the use of Structure Ten, albeit its secondary phase.

Fortunately, human bone specialist Dave Lawrence was visiting the site so he was able to confirm that it was human. But a single tooth does not make a mortuary structure so we will wait to see what else may turn up.

More from their dig diary here:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

Daily tours of the Ness of Brodgar excavation site run until Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

The weekday tours take place, from Monday to Friday, at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. This year for the first time, tours will also take place on Saturday and Sunday, at 11am and 3pm, although there will be no excavations on site.
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Re: Ness of Brodgar The Guardian's Comment on Excavations by AngieLake on Wednesday, 01 February 2012
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Liz Williams, writing in The Guardian yesterday, at least has archaeological experience of her own. This is the title of the piece:
"Archaeologists and pagans alike glory in the Brodgar complex
Let's not jump to conclusions about ritual significance, but this site is clearly immensely important to ancient British history"

Link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/31/archaeologists-pagans-brodgar-complex?newsfeed=true

The first three paragraphs:
Archaeologists are notoriously nervous of attributing ritual significance to anything (the old joke used to be that if you found an artefact and couldn't identify it, it had to have ritual significance), yet they still like to do so whenever possible. I used to work on a site in the mid-1980s – a hill fort in Gloucestershire – where items of potential religious note occasionally turned up (a horse skull buried at the entrance, for example) and this was always cause for some excitement, and also some gnashing of teeth at the prospect of other people who weren't archaeologists getting excited about it ("And now I suppose we'll have druids turning up").


The Brodgar complex has, however, got everyone excited. It ticks all the boxes that make archaeologists, other academics, lay historians and pagans jump up and down. Its age is significant: it's around 800 years older than Stonehenge (although lately, having had to do some research into ancient Britain, I've been exercised by just how widely dates for sites vary, so perhaps some caution is called for). Pottery found at Stonehenge apparently originated in Orkney, or was modelled on pottery that did.

The site at the Ness of Brodgar – a narrow strip of land between the existing Stone Age sites of Maeshowe and the Ring of Brodgar – is massive: the size of five football pitches and circled by a 10ft wall. Only a small percentage of it has been investigated; it is being called a "temple complex", and researchers seem to think that it is a passage complex – for instance, one in which bones are carried through and successively stripped (there is a firepit across one of the doors, and various entrances, plus alcoves like those in a passage grave, which are being regarded as evidence for this theory – but it's a bit tenuous at present). Obviously, at this relatively early stage, it's difficult for either professional archaeologists or their followers to formulate too many firm theories.

(Read more via the link)

[Found online via a Google Search Stonehenge]
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Re: Ness of Brodgar Nat Geographic News 27 Jan 2012 by AngieLake on Saturday, 28 January 2012
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A news item about the Ness of Brodgar excavation, dated 27 January 2012 has a great view of the excavated area showing the remains of buildings and walls.
News is pretty much what we've already heard, but interesting comment from 'romanopict' on 28th Jan.
Link here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/120127-stonehenge-ness-brodgar-scotland-science/

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    Re: Ness of Brodgar Nat Geographic News 27 Jan 2012 by Runemage on Sunday, 29 January 2012
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    Nice find Angie. I'd love to hear Orkney's farmers' opinions of the cattle pen theory. Surely it must have been mooted as so many of the local population are smallholders.

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Stone Age temple found in Orkney is 800 years older than Stonehenge by Andy B on Wednesday, 18 January 2012
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A 5000-year-old temple in Orkney could be more important than Stonehenge, according to archaeologists. The site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, was investigated by BBC2 documentary A History of Ancient Britain, with presenter Neil Oliver describing it as ‘the discovery of a lifetime’.

So far the remains of 14 Stone Age buildings have been excavated, but thermal geophysics technology has revealed that there are 100 altogether, forming a kind of temple precinct.

Until now Stonehenge was considered to have been the centre of Neolithic culture, but that title may now go to the Orkney site, which contains Britain’s earliest known wall paintings.

Oliver said: ‘The excavation of a vast network of buildings on Orkney is allowing us to recreate an entire Stone Age world.
‘It’s opening a window onto the mysteries of Neolithic religion.’
Experts believe that the site will give us insights into what Neolithic people believed about the world and the universe.
Nick Card, an archaeologist from the University of the Highlands and Islands, said: ‘It’s an archaeologist’s dream site. The excitement of the site never fades. ‘This site is a one-off.

Professor Mark Edmonds from the University of York, meanwhile, describes the excavation as ‘a site of international importance’.
Some parts of the temple are 800 years older than Stonehenge, which lies 500 miles to the south in Wiltshire.
The site is very close to the Ring of Brodgar stone circle and the standing stones of Stenness and is surrounded by a wall believed to have been 10-feet high.

Archaeologists found red zigzag lines on some of the buildings’ inner walls that they believe is Stone Age art – the oldest ever found.
So far only around 10 per cent of the site has been examined – and it could take decades to uncover and analyse everything there.

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2081254/Stone-Age-temple-Orkney-significant-Stonehenge.html?ITO=1490

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/orcadian-temple-predates-stonehenge-by-500-years.16330802

with thanks to neolithique02 for the links
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House bought to aid Orkney Brodgar archaeology efforts by Andy B on Monday, 19 December 2011
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An anonymous benefactor has bought a house in Orkney in the hope of aiding local archaeology efforts.

The unnamed American has bought Loch View in Stenness.

The property lies on the boundary of the Neolithic excavations at the Ness of Brodgar, in the heart of the area's World Heritage Site.

The building has been put in the care of the Orkney Heritage Society, allowing potential demolition if money becomes available to extend the work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-15835449

with thanks to coldrum for the link
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A History of Ancient Britain Special: Orkney's Stone Age Temple by Andy B on Sunday, 18 December 2011
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Caz Mamwell writes: the programme that Neil Oliver made about the Ness of Brodgar is due to be screened on New Year's day, BBC2 at 9pm. The blurb from the Beeb is as follows:

"Neil Oliver reports on a newly discovered 5,000-year-old temple on Orkney. Built 500 years before Stonehenge, the undisturbed archaeology and artifacts found there, including wall decorations, pigments and paint pots, are helping to increase knowledge and understanding of the Neolithic people. Special effects are used to re-create the structure in 3D, allowing Neil to walk inside and explore it."

More at
http://orkneyarchaeologytours.blogspot.com/2011/12/neil-oliver-at-ness-of-brodgar.html
and there's further discussion of the programme in our forum.

With thanks to Angie Lake for the link
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    Re: A History of Ancient Britain Special: Orkney's Stone Age Temple by AngieLake on Saturday, 04 August 2012
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    This programme is repeated tomorrow, Sunday 5th August, BBC 2 at 6pm.
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      Re: A History of Ancient Britain Special: Orkney's Stone Age Temple by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein on Monday, 06 August 2012
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      Thanks Angie,
      Saw your post 5 mins before it started !! All those lovely maceheads. And one made from whalebone ! I recently saw a 180mm Bronze Age battleaxe made from a huge lump of amber !! The most incredible thing I have ever seen . . . speaking as a lithics and amber collector . . .
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      Re: A History of Ancient Britain Special: Orkney's Stone Age Temple by AngieLake on Tuesday, 07 August 2012
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      That was lucky Blingo. So glad you enjoyed it. (I fell asleep before the end!) :-O
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Radiocarbon dates point to a millennium of activity on the Ness of Brodgar by Andy B on Saturday, 12 November 2011
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The site of the prehistoric complex on the Ness of Brodgar was in use for around 1,000 years.

New radiocarbon dates from two areas of the ongoing excavations show the Stenness site was occupied from at least 3200BC to 2300BC.

The earliest date came from deposits under the “Lesser Wall of Brodgar” — the southern boundary that was one of two prehistoric walls that enclosed the site. The second came from a huge deposit of cattle bone filling the upper levels of the paved “passage” surrounding Structure Ten – the massive “cathedral” building.

Both dates came as something of a surprise to site director Nick Card, from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA).

“The material under the lesser wall dates from circa 3200-3100BC. As such, this is probably the earliest material we have so far encountered

“The bone spread around Structure Ten yielded a date of around 2300BC. This was much later than expected, so the two dates give us a much longer sequence than anticipated – almost a millennium of activity!”

But, explained Nick, because there are still layers of archaeology beneath the wall, the excavators have not yet reached the earliest layers of the site.

More at
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/2011/10/27/radiocarbon-dates-point-to-a-millennium-of-activity-on-the-ness-of-brodgar/
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New finds in ‘cathedral’ building reignite question – Stone Age dresser or altar? by Runemage on Thursday, 22 September 2011
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This is also posted on the Barnhouse site page but it relevant to both sites and Skara Brae. Well-spotted David Morgan

New finds in ‘cathedral’ building reignite age-old question – Stone Age dresser or altar?

Posted by Sigurd Towrie on Friday, September 16, 2011;
Categorised as: Neolithic
Tagged as: Barnhouse, Ness of Brodgar, Skara Brae

“A curious feature which is found in [Skara Brae’s] chambers three and six is an arrangement of two stone shelves, erected one above the other and abutting against one of the stone walls.
“They remind one of double berths in a ship, but they were used, more probably, for storing pottery utensils in, when not in use, and Professor Childe’s descriptive term – ‘dresser’ – is probably not very wide of the mark”
Skerrabrae, by Hugh Marwick.
Kirkwall, November 8, 1928.

One of the “dressers” in Skara Brae. (Sigurd Towrie)

Orkney’s history features a number of striking symbols — items that most folk could identify immediately: the Maeshowe dragon, the Scar plaque and, probably, the large stone ‘dressers’ in Skara Brae.

The powerful imagery surrounding the latter remains today, so much so that it features heavily in the decoration of the Skara Brae visitor centre and guidebook – not bad for a prehistoric kitchen cupboard.

But over the years, the significance, and role, of these so-called ‘dressers’ has been questioned.

They were built to the same design and placed in the same position in certain structures – directly opposite the entrance. Were they more than mere domestic storage?

The idea that there was more to the dresser was brought to the fore following the discovery of the Barnhouse Settlement in 1984.

Among the ‘normal’ houses on site was a massive later building, which was christened Structure Eight.

This building was constructed around 2600BC, after the village had been abandoned. It was a massive hall-like structure, seven metres square, with incredibly thick outer walls. It was also built on a platform of yellow clay, a feature paralleling Maeshowe, nearby.

Structure Eight’s clay platform was then surrounded by an enclosing circular wall, creating an internal courtyard over 20 metres across.

The complex’s spatial layout closely resembles that of the Standing Stones of Stenness, and it was immediately clear that this was no domestic residence. But inside, was a stone dresser.

But why build a storage unit for domestic utensils, when archaeological excavations have shown that Structure Eight’s central fire was not used for the preparation of food?

All cooking relating to whatever was happening inside Structure Eight was carried out in the courtyard between the inner and outer walls.

So, it seemed that the dresser in Structure Eight was more than a mere item of furniture — an altar perhaps?

The idea has parallels throughout history and other cultures. For example, the traditional ‘ger’ – or ‘yurt’ as it’s more commonly known – of the Mongolian nomads has featured, for 3,000 years now, an altar directly facing the entrance.
In addition, the interior organisation of a ger follows an identical pattern – the door faces the south, the men’s place is in the west part, and the north side is the place for honoured guests, or old people, as well as the place for the family altar. The east side is the women’s territory, and the stove occupies the centre.

Fast forward to the early 21st century and the discovery of the Stone Age complex on the Ness of Brodgar – in particular, Structure Ten – the massive Neolithic ‘cathedral’.

Measuring 25 metres long by 20 metres wide, the outer walls remain to a height of approximately one metre.

Its sheer size – with its five-metre-thick walls

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'Comet Stone' with circle and divirging lines discovered at Ness dig by Andy B on Monday, 15 August 2011
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From the Ness dig diary:
A new ‘Comet Stone’

Here is a question for all you blog readers out there. Was Halley’s Comet visible in the skies above Orkney in the later Neolithic, say around 3000BC to 2500 BC?

The reason we ask is that we appear to have our very own “Comet Stone”, which bears a very fair resemblance to Mr Halley’s favourite object.

Claire found it in Structure Ten and it features a circle with three slightly diverging lines trailing after it. No doubt all those who apply astronomy to archaeological alignments will be delighted. We are just delighted to have it.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

[It doesn't appear there is a photo of this find yet - MegP Ed]
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    Re: 'Comet Stone' with circle and divirging lines discovered at Ness dig by Feanor on Thursday, 18 August 2011
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    Indeed, Halley's Comet has been running around for a very long time and certainly back then. This is also true of many other, less famous comets as well.
    As uninformed as apparently I am with regard to many things Archeological, I would still be a trifle conservative in identifying this object as a comet specifically.
    But yes - to answer the question - Halley's has been floating in and out for at least 60,000 years, visible during its 4/5 month passage from all areas of the planet.
    Best,
    Neil
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Ness of Brodgar 2011 dig diary by Andy B on Monday, 15 August 2011
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The 2011 dig diary is here:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/
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Ness of Brodgar Dig visit report by howar on Sunday, 14 August 2011
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I reached the Ness of Brodgar around dinner-time, in between the guided tours, so decided not to ask to look at the finds. Looking at 'Brodgar Boy', what in one view did look idol-like (despite that lop-sided third 'eye') in another was distinctly a broken-off top with a short 'stem' at the bottom. Now that the rest has been found the object is two-and-a-half times as long and looks like a mini-staff (a symbol of authority and/or for ceremonies, or a representation of one ?). Including the 'neck' and that stem there are three circumferential grooves that might have been for rope - you can easily imagine it with tassels !

In digging the midden of Structure Eight they have found a stone incised with an earth sign [Pars Fortuna]. . Structure One has so far produced several dozen incised stones, the last what what they take for a representation of a comet (but a circle with three trailing lines has other meanings). But the most common symbol is what they are calling a double-triangle and associating with a bee, though these also been 'read' elsewhere as butterflies (over at Banks Chambered Tomb there are vees/chevrons, which are seen as birds). Pre C14 dating one at Stonehenge was wrongly identified with the Cretan labrys (double-axe). Much has been made of Stenness infuence on the Avebury area, so is this another indicator ? Finally on site the Neolithic roof tiles were removed, only for more to be revealed at the same place after further digging - the imp of the perverse wonders if this is a dump rather than collapse in sensu strictu.

Despite the very strong wind the first thing that I did was go up the viewing platform. The lighting being distinctly flat all structures tended to merge - in these conditions what is needed for photographing features is a little light rain I recall. First new item to 'pop out' the monumental hearth in Structure Ten. ImmediatelyI thought of the one in the Stones of Stenness circle, though I think comparisons will instead be made with Barnhouse 'village'. Next I saw a long slab with ends framed by angle topped orthostats. This must be the probable Structure Ten entrance they have found - having been caught out before by dodgy contexts they are holding back judgement until they can be certain it does not belong to another period or structure (I saw what could be another rectangular feature [or part of a passage/'street'] directly in front of it).

Coming down again it did not surprise me that nothing further has happened to the NE corner since I came here with Orkney Blide Trust the previous week (not realising we would stay for the whole 90 minute tour I'd had to come back for The Work photography) as it is at the very edge of the dig. The day I came seemed to be dedicated to cleaning and recording several parts of the site so I tried to avoid getting in their way. Nothing major looks to have appeared in the sides overlooked by the spoil heaps - I would dearly love to find out where that drain goes to in the piece by the western edge.

Filling the appended SW corner Structure Twelve still sits in splendid isolation from the rest of the buildings as far as I can tell. Either that will change in future seasons or it is telling us something. Going round the final side and that massive squat standing stone still has pride of place in the SE corner. Does it extend much below what we see now or will it prove as shallow rooted as the red orthostat they have recently removed ?

Last year they lterally got to the bottom of the Lesser Wall of Brodgar, only to find that it stood on paving and possibly earlier structures. This year geophysics has confirmed that it bridges the Ness and it is back to being part of a wall circuit encompassing the site they are investigating (could the paving be an extended base ??). The Kockna-Cumming chambered mound still lies outside the whole and the Brodgar Standing Stone Pair straddle the wall. Are the stones from a prior age or were they put there later than the wall, either much later to show where it was or immed

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    Re: Ness of Brodgar Dig visit report by howar on Saturday, 27 August 2011
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    Covering the site for next year was well in hand on Thursday, with the building in the far corner already fuly blanketed in black plastic. So I had a bit of a race against time. Actually as far as making sense of the site is concerned it is much easier to make out the structures, especially the walls, with the plastic sheet laid on the floors ! After photographing all you would need to to do is 'photoshop' the black for a less obtrusive contrast in colour. Today another big deep hearth stood out. Very close to it are two large slabs on edge making a likely corner. The hearth seems a little close to be connected or respecting it (though it could mirror the hearth's far left corner). One side is a thick rectangular slab and the other is thinner and has one angled end. On the other hand the latter also looks to line up with an edge of a thick tall-ish ortostat. Both have narrow horizontal slabs by them at ground level (that at the orthostat resembling part of a standing stone socket) and another in the space between them. From the orthostat another much lower orthostat runs to the wall of a structure, and by its RH side a small paved area [?entrance] ends at another wall. In the photograph I can see a slighly angled orthostat built into the ? far wall of the structure. Of course even looking from other directions perspective might be misleading me. But a diagram to help you see would fall foul of ORCA's no image policy. There are at least two fallen rectangular stone near all of this, one of which might well have formed a wall with the rectangular and another abutting the angle of the corner to its left. I had a look at the drain exposed below the paved circular passage near the viewing platform. It is not much wider than a small soil pipe and bounded by a mostly thin coursed wall, though there is one stone on its long edge I can see. All over the site there are the tops of walls and fallen slabs, the latter as likely isolated as not. Unlike the north end (I can even make out the N/S baulk in one image) the view from the west end spoil heap is really a mish-mash at this stage in the cover-up. Along the south end the tapes were gone. So I finally had a chance fror a peak from this direction, treading carefully like the seasoned digger I had been. I am particularly struck by a horizontal lang stane, virtually by itself, closely parallel to what was/is the E/W baulk about half-way along the east 'arm'. What is visible is mid-brown, five to six feet long and about the thickness of a brick wall course. The long edge facing me seemed to have a square cut running along the top but I see it is simply that this is a roughly flat edge [??natural]. From here I can see that my corner is less so - there is a gap before the angled slab, which is thin, and the other two stones are the true corner. But all of it is on the same 'grid', with at least another three walls on the same alignment [NW/SE if the baulks do run cardinally] between the walls/structure directly ahint the corner and the site's east end by the north end of the platform. Nick Card has noticed where I am and calls me out as this part of the site is still sacrosanct. I try to see the lang stane from the viewing platform ramp but cannot, though a digger near to it is working close to it and in front of her may be another one [?? or the same], for I can see a big long block with a horizontal split hard against the baulk. Leaving I take a gander at the finds 'trays' outside being packed. I see that large potsherd with deep ribs and two of the smooth stone balls, one an oblate spheroid and the other an almost complete ovoid with a linear crack running around it (and a piece from elsewhere detached on it, sandy coloured inside).
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Friday, 12 August 2011
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Walking back from another visit and from the Kirkwall-Stromness road going east had quite a good view of the overall profile of the ness. Then just over a field's length from the Stenness Kirk junction took another pic and saw that the curvature matched that of the Black Hill of Warbuster visible behind it, or more specifically the sub-hill on which the Bookan Tomb sits
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Re: 'Brodgar Boy' - anthropomorphic carving ? by howar on Tuesday, 09 August 2011
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Now the rest has been found it resembles a segmented rolling pin http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/0808114.jpg
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    Re: 'Brodgar Boy' - anthropomorphic carving ? by Runemage on Tuesday, 09 August 2011
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    I wonder if rope or leather thong was wound around the indentations, it's another mystery object, but not well-crafted enough to be other than utilitarian by the looks. Wonder what they used it for.
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'Brodgar Boy' - anthropomorphic carving ? by howar on Monday, 01 August 2011
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Discovered on Friday http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/the-brodgar-boy/
They say they would like an expert to confirm it really is a 'figurine' (hardly surprising because as well as the two putative eyes there is another small hollow the same size to the right and below, at the groove/'neck'). Also this came from a later period structure where it may be an intrusion from an even later period, so context needs firming up. In my opinion though too wee for a sinker or loom weight it nevertheless could be the top of one with the 'neck' a groove for a rope loop. But this view is suggestive of a haft, or at least a handle of some description http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150192808952168&set=a.10150192808832168.274545.31395967167&type=1&theater
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Stone Age DIY: How Neolithic man decorated his house with homemade paint by bat400 on Tuesday, 09 November 2010
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Submitted by Runemage ---
Neolithic men were house-proud people who enjoyed doing DIY, new research has revealed. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that shows our ancestors from 5,000 years ago painted the insides of their Stone Age homes to brighten the place up.

As well as decorating the stone walls, they also painted designs like chevrons and zig-zags on their interiors. They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint, the new research has found. It is the earliest ever example of man using paint to decorate their properties in Britain, if not in Europe.

Archaeologists made the discovery at the site of a Stone Age settlement on the island of Orkney. A neolithic village consisting of 15 small dwellings was first discovered at Brodgar on Orkney in the 1980s. Then last year archaeologists dug up a number of nearby temples that the inhabitants would have worshipped in. Several stones used to form the buildings have now been found to have been painted and decorated by the locals in about 3,000 BC.

It is thought this was actually done to enhance important buildings and may have been found in entranceways or areas of the building which had particular significance.

Nick Card, of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, said: 'This is a quite exceptional discovery. 'We have found seven stones in this ritual centre. Some of them were covered in paint and others appear to have had designs such as chevrons and zig zags painted on. 'When you think of the neolithic period you think of a grey, monochrome world. 'But we have suspected that colour was a part of their world. 'Paint pots have been found at various other sites before but we assumed this was for personal adornment. 'But we now know they used it to paint their walls.

'Earthy colours were used like oranges, yellows and reddy-browns pigments probably derived from various minerals that had been crushed up and mixed with a binding agent such as animal fat or eggs to create this primitive paint. 'We are not talking Rembrandt, they were pretty basic designs. 'I think the Neolithic people were no different from ourselves in that these were probably special structures which they felt should be adorned in different colours. 'These are the first finds of their kind. A first for the UK if not for northern Europe. It is not yet known if all the walls were painted or if this was reserved for special parts of the building. 'It is remarkable that the paint has remained intact after 5,000 years buried in the ground. 'This is a first for the UK, if not for northern Europe.'

The paint will now be analysed but it is thought it may have been made from hematite mixed with animal fat and perhaps milk or egg. The painted stones are about 3ft wide and 3ins thick.

Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk.
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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August 24th 2010
Went to Brodgar day before end of dig as though they have made lovely discoveries on last days much will be be going back under black plastic early on the day. Past Bridgend went around the back of the Kokna-Cumming mound to come upon the Lesser Wall of Brodgar from behind by a gentler slope. Glad they have realised that this is a late feature as otherwise what would one make of the Brodgar standing stone pair straddling its view eastwards and the tomb outside its supposed remit. To me the point of it is to face the Staneyhill Tomb - I forget what they call it in political science but it is like gardeners "borrowing a view" by bringing a further vista into the visitor's eyeline. What does this mean for the hypothesis that the Greater Wall of Brodgar was meant to form a northern boundary to the whole Ness assemblage ? It doesn't seem to have any similar alignment [and perhaps too thick to find a statistically valid one anyhow] but is it equally late, performing a non-liminal function yet to be identified. At the bottom of the Lesser Wall's southern side there is now a pavement just under the level of the Wall base by the remains of what is to my eye another wall at a slight angle to the later Wall. Near the bottom of the Wall it looks to me as if there are what is left of two cruder walls parallel to one another over and at right angles to my putative earlier wall, and hence the pavement below. To my dismay the area of trench behind the Wall has still not been dug below the level of its top. Probably a "health and safety" thing. Here there are two arcs of collapsed wall, perhaps an inner and outer section. Not that this necessarily means one or both had not been straight when still standing. Oh, I can barely wait for their investigation. And then maybe sometime they can go down to the Wall base here to see if the Lesser Wall might be part of some other structure yet.
On to the main Ness of Brodgar site a bit of height not only gains you perspective but also frees you of photographing beige stone against beige stone and having to decipher it later ! First up is the new to this season next-to-roadside observation platform with a long ramp for wheelchair access. Then there are the large spoil heaps by the northern and western sides, as long as you don't mind the shifting soil underfoot in places. The space between Lochview and the dig is too smaa for anything but a photographic tower for the bosses, so you can't use that. It amazes me that at first glance it all looks practically the same as last time. Up on the platform on this side of the site the bulk is taken up by Structure 10 on your left with its, ahem, standing stone. No work is ongoing in the 'cathedral' now. In front of the platform's near end Structure 8 is divine. Along the western edge are what I see as three sub-square interior cells but on plan I see are duplicated on the opposite side, forming two rectangular and one long oval sub-divisions of the whole. This is basically how it has looked since last year. But on my third visit of the season exterior to the northern wall at the trenches edge are (I think) three small strucures that make you think of mini-roundhouses. All this mixing of linear and circular or sub-circular forms throughout the site strike me as less a striving for a practical form [and/or effective ritual space] and more the search for an artistic vision, squaring the circle to put the art into architecture. Very nice, whatever. Next is the small Structure 7, pinned between 8 and the Structure 1+9 combo.
The latter can be seen from the first spoil heap. Up here the first thing you spot is a large circular wall arc [?9 - the structure plan on Orkneyjar is from the season's start] in front of which work has been going on in a linear structure apparently leading up and terminating before it with what I take to be either a wide facade (pehaps fronting a courtyard entrance) or two flanking ?guard-cells. Looking left from this by the edge of the trench is a short length of low parallel orthostats tha

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Neolithic painted zigzag chevron pattern in red pigment found by Andy B on Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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Neolithic stone network found on Orkney

Archaeologists have discovered the first evidence in the UK of stonework painted with a pattern, suggesting Neolithic people enjoyed decorating. It comes a week after the researchers, working at the Brodgar peninsula on Orkney, found plain painted stones thought to be around 5,000 years old at the spot.

The site, described as a possible Neolithic temple precinct, is between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.

The latest discovery, is a stone with a zigzag chevron pattern in red pigment.

More in The Scotsman
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Neolithic-stone-network-found-on.6454132.jp
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Friday, 13 August 2010
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Finally the Lesser Wall is exposed again and also they think they have reached the bottom, where a fine paved area has been revealed on the south side i.e. outside their gargantuan [putative] temenos. Looking along the wall between the standing stone pair with my new Casio Exilim FH20 I can confirm a definite alignment with the Staney Hill Tomb [there may be another site between them and some tumuli beyond, one of which has come up before]. There is now a viewing platform for visitors to look down from the east side. Unfortunately a new fence appears to be going back up around the dig after having been there over-winter, putting the public up to several feet further back on the ground
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2010 Dig diary and blog by Andy B on Wednesday, 28 July 2010
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2010 Dig diary and blog Home page here
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/

Currently reporting
Neolithic ‘slate’ roofs!

One of the most interesting facets of the buildings to come to light this year so far is the evidence for roof coverings.

In most reconstructions of prehistoric buildings, you’ll often see hotch-potched arrangements of turf, animal skins or perhaps thatch. However, within the side recesses along the internal walls of Structure Eight, we have discovered a much more organised method of roofing – Neolithic stone slates!

See Monday, July 26, 2010 for the painted stone

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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Tuesday, 27 July 2010
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Painted walls found, a first for Britain and perhaps northern Europe http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/radioorkney.asp from 9 or 10 a.m. 27th July to approx 8 a.m. 28th July 2010
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Tuesday, 27 July 2010
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Condition:5
Ambience:5
Access:5
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Digging up the past at the Ness of Brodgar,27 July 2010, 3 and 10 August 2010 by coldrum on Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Digging up the past at the Ness of Brodgar,27 July 2010, 3 and 10 August 2010

Digging up the past at the Ness of Brodgar


Ring Of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, 27 July 2010, 3 August 2010, 10 August 2010


Young people between 12 and 16 are invited to try their hand at archaeology, learn excavation techniques and have the chance to be part of one of the most exciting excavations in the world!

There are a limited number of places for this event so booking is essential.To book a space and for further information contact the Orkney Rangers.


For further information, contact
Historic Scotland Ranger Service
[email protected] or telephone +44 (0)1856 841 732


http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/places/events/event_detail.htm?eventid=28366
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Tours of the Ness of Brodgar Excavations 2010 by coldrum on Wednesday, 23 June 2010
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Tours of the Ness of Brodgar Excavations, 21 July 2010, 25 August 2010

Tours of the Ness of Brodgar Excavations


Ring Of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, 21 July 2010, 25 August 2010


This is your chance to see archaeology in action! The excavations at the Ness Of Brodgar year after year continue to reveal more and more about Orkneys Neolithic Heartland. The Rangers in conjunction with ORCA provide tours of the excavations.


Time: 11am and 3pm
Meet: Ness of Brodgar


For further information, contact
Historic Scotland Ranger Service
[email protected] or telephone +44 (0)1856 841 732


http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/places/events/event_detail.htm?eventid=28365
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Re:Ness of Brodgar by coldrum on Sunday, 04 April 2010
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Street View


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'Neolithic cathedral built to amaze’ unearthed in Orkney dig by Anonymous on Friday, 28 August 2009
A huge Neolithic cathedral, unlike anything else which can be seen in Britain, has been found in Orkney.

Archaeologists said that the building would have dwarfed the island’s landmarks from the Stone Age — the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness. Nick Card, who is leading the dig at the Ness of Brodgar, said that the cathedral, which would have served the whole of the north of Scotland, would have been constructed to “amaze” and “create a sense of awe” among those who saw it.

It is about 65ft in length and width and would have dominated the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness which stand on either side. These important sites, dating back about 5,000 years, might have actually been peripheral features of Orkney’s Stone Age landscape. Mr Card said: “In effect it is a Neolithic cathedral for the whole of the north of Scotland.”

The shape and size of the building are clearly visible today, with the walls still standing to a height of more then 3ft — although they would have been far taller when built. They are 16ft thick and surround a cross-shaped inner sanctum in which the 40-strong excavation team has found examples of art and furniture made from stone.

The cathedral was surrounded by a paved outer passage which the archaeologists believe could have formed a labyrinth that would have led worshippers through darkness to the chamber at the heart of the building.

The team has also discovered that a standing stone which is split by a hole shaped like an hourglass was incorporated into the structure, something never seen before in buildings from the period.

“A building of this scale and complexity was here to amaze, to create a sense of awe in the people who saw this place,” Mr Card said. “The perfection of the stonework is beautiful to look at. This is architecture on a monumental scale and the result is the largest structure of its kind anywhere in the north of Britain.

“Today it is still so impressive and when you look down on it from above it is almost jaw-dropping. It is a real privilege to work here and we feel that this was a very special place.”

Colin Richards, reader in archaeology at Manchester University and a leading expert on the period, said that the building would have stood at the heart of Neolithic Orkney. “A structure of this nature would have been renowned right across the north of Scotland — and is unprecedented anywhere in Britain,” he said.

The dig, which has been operating since 2003, involves archaeologists from Orkney College and from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Cardiff universities. Volunteers have also travelled from the United States, Italy, Sweden and Ireland to take part.

Last summer the team established that there was a very large building on the site, but it is only now that the true scale of the cathedral has been unearthed. The Ness of Brodgar site, which covers 2.5 hectares, has been described as potentially as important as the Skara Brae village, the world heritage site on the islands.

Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6795316.ece
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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They found a 'new' high wall in a trial excavation over the buildings from the main dig and it points across the gap between the Brodgar/Lochview standing stone pair, bisecting this
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Friday, 14 August 2009
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Looking along the Comet Stone with stub i the Ness of Brodgar is perfectly framed, like looking down the barrel of a gun.
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by howar on Thursday, 30 July 2009
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Continuing diary of this year's excavations, with several photos every day http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/diary.htm
The putative cup-and-ring artwork resembles more an eye decoration
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Brodgar assumptions questioned by 2008 dig by Andy B on Wednesday, 01 October 2008
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With the excavations on the Ness of Brodgar (Orkney, Scotland) now closed, site director Nick Card feels its time for a
major rethink about the landscape of Orkney's Neolithic Heartland.

The long-held assumption that the Ring of Brodgar and Standing
Stones of Stenness were the centre of activity needs looked at again,
said Nick, senior project manager of the Orkney Research Centre for
Archaeology (ORCA). He explained: "For centuries people have been
coming to the Ness and, because it is dominated by the two massive
stone rings, it's come to be assumed that they were the main Neolithic
focus of the area. The Ring of Brodgar, in particular, has become
regarded as the ceremonial 'centre' of the Ness.

In light of this
summer's finds, however, I would question that interpretation. I
wonder whether the stone circles were merely on the periphery of the
true ceremonial centre — a massive ceremonial complex, fragments of
which are now only coming to light. It's becoming clear to us now that
this complex, in its heyday, must have completely dominated the
landscape."

Read more at
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nob20081.htm
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by LizH on Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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Condition: 2 (hard to tell yet as only about one foot dug up!)
Ambience: 3 (crawling with archaelogists - but they are interesting!)
Access: 5 just off road between Stenness and Brodgar circles. Site covered apart from during digs.
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by Anonymous on Tuesday, 28 August 2007
i took part in the recent excavation at the ness of brodgar and can confirm that it will be one of the most importantant neolithic sites not only on Orkney or in Britain but possibly in europe!
this is 21/2 ha of the most densly packed upstanding neolithic archaeology i have ever encountered.
it may well take decades to fully unravel it
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by Anonymous on Saturday, 18 August 2007
I think it was the Neolithic Visitor Centre, or pilgrim's rest and hospitality generally. There would have been food and ale, shelter and warmth.

Merryn
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Re: Ness of Brodgar by Anonymous on Saturday, 18 August 2007
What about Sigurd Towrie's dig blog at http://www.orkneyjar.com ? http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgar2007/index.html

Merryn
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Re: Neolithic village found in Orkney sheds new light on Stone Age life by Andy B on Friday, 17 August 2007
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Long article on this in the Scotsman:
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1280342007
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Orkney Dig unearths Neolithic settlement by Andy B on Thursday, 16 August 2007
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With thanks to cosmic:

The remains of a massive Neolithic settlement dating back more than 5,000 years have been discovered in Orkney.
Archaeologists said the discovery could be as significant as the famous prehistoric village at Skara Brae, which was unearthed in 1850.

The site at Ness of Brodgar lies in the heart of Neolithic Orkney, between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness.

The finds have included a Neolithic mace head and decorated stones.

Only a small part of the site has been dug, exposing large oval stone buildings subdivided into small chambers.

Archaeologists from Orkney College hope the area will unlock some of the secrets of the people who lived there.

Nick Card, who is leading the dig, said: "What we have is a whole series of buildings - unfortunately we've only managed to open a tiny percentage of what is actually here.

"The buildings which we have been uncovered are of a kind never seen before.

"Some of the structures do appear to be domestic in nature but one, the main structure in the big trench, is much more complex with very symmetrical architecture.

"The scale of the building and its refinement would suggest that it perhaps had some other function other than domestic."

Archaeologist Julie Gibson told BBC Radio Scotland that the site was hugely significant.

She added: "This is going to tell us an enormous amount about how people interacted and worked within the stone circles.

"People who were staying here were probably putting up the stone circles, or certainly having their ceremonies at them - living right next door or coming for meetings there."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/6943696.stm
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Ness of Brodgar Dig diary by Andy B on Tuesday, 14 August 2007
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Dig diary from Naomi – the finds supervisor.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgar2007/index.html
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Neolithic village found in Orkney sheds new light on Stone Age life by Andy B on Tuesday, 14 August 2007
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The remains of a Neolithic settlement discovered in Orkney were hailed yesterday as potentially as important as the Skara Brae village on the islands.

The 2.5 hectare site is believed to date back nearly 5,000 years and to include a complex system of temples and dwellings spread over two fields. The find, at Ness of Brodgar, between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, will add to the area’s reputation as home to some of the most remarkable archaeological monuments in Europe.

Nick Card, project manager at the dig, began excavations two months ago with a team from Orkney College and Orkney Archaeological Trust. He said that the discovery had the potential to rank alongside Skara Brae, the Stone Age village that is now part of a World Heritage Site. “The discovery has the potential to illuminate how these different sites interacted and how people lived,” he said. “We are hopeful that every aspect of life 5,000 years ago will be clarified by our discoveries. This is not just about Neolithic life in the north of Scotland; it could have ramifications for the study of the Stone Age throughout Britain.”

Only a small part of the settlement has so far been unearthed, but it includes large oval stone buildings subdivided into small chambers, almost certainly temples. Other buildings are believed to be domestic.

Mr Card said: “What we have is a whole series of buildings; we’ve only managed to open a tiny percentage of what is actually here. The buildings which we have uncovered are of a kind never seen before. Some of the structures do appear to be domestic in nature but one, the main structure in the big trench, is much more complex, with very symmetrical architecture.” Other findings include a Neolithic mace head and beautifully decorated stones, as well as stone tools and burnt animal bones. Mr Card said that the team had uncovered “pottery by the bucketful”.

Julie Gibson, one of the archaeologists involved, said that the find would help researchers to understand the relationship between neighbouring Neolithic sites, including stone circles on the Ring of Brodgar, a promontory between two lochs, the Maeshowe chambered tomb and the Stones of Stenness.

Thousands of tourists visit Orkney each year to view its Neolithic monuments, widely considered to be among the finest in Europe. Archaeologists believe that it could be many years before the full extent of the dig is uncovered.

The Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2253781.ece
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