NESS OF BRODGAR
Over the past two decades, the excavation of a Stone Age complex in the West Mainland has become a major fixture in Orkney’s summer calendar. This year will be your last chance to see archaeologists in action at the Ness of Brodgar, with the final season of fieldwork taking place in June, July and August.
The dig lies between the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar, in a landscape rich in archaeology. Over two decades, excavation has uncovered a cluster of monumental Neolithic structures on a site with a biography spanning millennia — from traces of Mesolithic activity and its Neolithic heyday, through to the early Bronze Age and Iron Age use.
At its zenith, around 3100BC, the Ness complex was dominated by huge, free-standing buildings flanked by a pair of massive stone walls.
It 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 1,000 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.
And considering what has been uncovered since 2003, it is incredible to think that only ten per cent of the site has been excavated.
The discovery
Until the early years of the 21st century, a massive whaleback mound at the south-eastern tip of the Ness of Brodgar peninsula was believed to be a natural feature.
Over the years countless thousands passed the giant mound while travelling between the Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness. But, despite some clues over the centuries, few gave it a second glance.
Then, in March 2003, a large, notched stone was ploughed up.
Initially, it was believed this was part of a Bronze Age burial cist, so a rescue excavation was launched. But there was no cist. Instead, part of a large Neolithic building was revealed.
That building was what we now refer to as Structure One.
Further investigation confirmed what was already suspected – much of the ridge was artificial and covered a sprawling assortment of Neolithic structures and middens.
Twenty-one years on, hundreds of archaeologists have worked on site and hundreds of thousands of visitors have followed the progress of the largest archaeological dig in Orcadian history.
A monumental Neolithic complex
Little did we know that the building uncovered in 2003 was but one part of a site that has revolutionised our understanding of Neolithic Orkney.
It consists of multiple phases of activity spanning the entire Neolithic period in Orkney, approximately 3700BC to 2300BC. Although
most of the excavated buildings belong to the later phases — raised around 3100BC and initially abandoned around 2900BC — beneath them are earlier structures from previous phases.
It was around 2900BC that something changed. The grand buildings seem to have lost their significance, and were replaced by a single large, elaborate building — Structure Ten. After the others fell out of use, only Structure Ten remained before it too was abandoned and monumentalised around 2400BC.
What was it for?
The size, quality, and architecture of the buildings, not to mention the rich assemblages of artefacts, together with evidence for tiled roofs, coloured walls, and around 1,000 examples of decorated stone all add to an overall sense of the Ness complex being something special — a place that is, so far, unparalleled in Orkney and further afield.
Although its role undoubtedly changed over time, during its peak period the evidence suggests it was a place where people from Orkney, and beyond, came together.
The Ness complex was not continuously occupied. Instead, it was a place of feasting and the exchange of ideas and objects — gatherings perhaps relating to ceremonies, rituals and celebrations important to this evidently vibrant society.
Twenty years of discoveries Painted walls and coloured pottery
In 2010, it became clear that walls in two Ness of Brodgar buildings had been “painted” — the stonework coloured by the application of pigment.
Then, in 2011, a prehistoric “paint shop” was found inside Structure Ten. Gathered in a discrete area were examples of red and yellow ochre; stones with a depression in their centre, like little grinding dishes; and a small, stone rubber.
This was interpreted as a pigment production area, highlighting the importance of colour in Neolithic life.
Stone roofs
The Ness dig in 2010 produced Orkney’s first evidence of Neolithic roofing.
A layer of carefully trimmed stone slabs were lying on the floor of Structure Eight. Such was their number that, initially, they were thought to be paving. It soon became clear, however, that these were roof tiles.
Although similar tiles were also found in Structures One, Ten, Twelve and Twenty-seven, that does not mean that all Neolithic buildings — even those within the Ness complex itself — had stone roofs.
The scale and grandeur of the monumental Ness buildings suggests they were meant to impress. It seems very likely, therefore, that their massive stone roofs played a major role in this.
Timber
The acidic soil at the Ness means that organic material does not survive.
So, in 2023, the discovery of timber was particularly exciting — not least because it
supported the theories on how the buildings were roofed.
By the end of week six there were over 50 fragmented timber samples, not to mention a section of a plank! Not one for overstatement, finds supervisor Anne declared the plank, which measured about 60cm long, to be the most exciting find from the site to date!
That the timber had survived is remarkable and further examination will hopefully reveal the type of wood – is it a species known to grow in Neolithic Orkney or driftwood?
Carved stone ball
Over 500 carved stone balls have been found in Scotland. Roughly the size of an orange and each distinctively decorated, they were fashioned in the Neolithic, and no one knows why.
Although we can’t fathom out their function, one thing is abundantly clear — they were made with considerable skill and patience. They sit beautifully in the hand. A portal to the past.
Our carved stone ball, found in Structure Ten in 2013, was one of several objects deliberately placed under buttresses added during the building’s remodelling around 2800BC.
Neolithic art
Prior to the excavations on the Ness, it’s safe to say that Neolithic “artwork” was something of a rarity in Orkney. Yes, there were examples from Skara Brae, some incised motifs in chambered cairns, the beautiful Pierowall Stone and, of course, the Brodgar Stone — discovered at the Ness in 1925.
But one of the major elements of the dig over the past 20 years has been the sheer quantity of Stone Age decoration found.
Over 1,000 examples of incised decoration have been found across the site. The designs are mostly geometric in form with hatching, crosses, chevrons, zigzags and the hourglass-shaped “Brodgar Butterfly”.
The wider world
What the Ness dig has shown clearly is that the people of Neolithic Orkney were part of a wider world, with connections to western Scotland, Ireland and England.
The site has produced stunning artefacts, many made from material from outside Orkney. This includes gneiss from the north-west Highlands and Western Isles and pitchstone from Arran.
What happens next?
Excavation on a site like the Ness could continue for decades. However, because work on the structures uncovered so far will be completed this year, it is a logical time to pause.
Although digging is ending, the Ness of Brodgar research project continues.
The focus will shift to the analysis of all the recovered material, which must be fully catalogued and examined by specialists. The results will help unpick the story of the people who built, used and ultimately abandoned the site in the centuries around 2500BC.
At the end of the 2024 season, the site will be filled in and left for future generations of archaeologists to continue the work — undoubtedly using even better scientific techniques than available now.
The archaeology must be reburied because the stone used for the buildings degrades if left exposed to the elements. The long-term survival of the Ness complex is paramount so leaving it uncovered is not an option.
Skara Brae’s buildings were constructed from tough, waterworn beach-stone but the quarried stone used at the Ness will simply not last.
Visit in 2024
If you want to see the site while excavation is in progress, 2024 is the last chance.
Diggers will be back on site from Monday, June 24, until Friday, August 23, 2024, and the nine-week excavation open to the public on weekdays between Wednesday, June 26, and Friday, August 16.
Free guided tours are available at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
Open days will take place on July 14, and August 4, on site and in the Stenness school.
See www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk for full details of visiting the Ness, as well as information on the site and the daily dig diary. Meanwhile, the project will feature in a major new exhibition at the Orkney Museum, Kirkwall, this summer. Ness of Brodgar: Past, Present and Future runs from May 4 until September 30, 2024, and will be accompanied by a new book.
The museum is open Monday to Saturday and admission is free.
To celebrate and coincide with the final season of excavation, the Ness of Brodgar is the subject of a major new exhibition at the Orkney Museum this summer.
For the past 20 years, archaeologists have been excavating the monumental settlement complex in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. But the fieldwork is coming to an end, and this summer will see the final season of digging, the filling in of trenches, and a return of the fields to pasture.
The exhibition, Ness of Brodgar: Past, Present and Future explores the current thinking about just what it was that made the place so special.
Running over multiple galleries, the exhibition is the largest hosted by the museum to date and will feature hundreds of finds from the Ness, never before displayed in public.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a new book, produced by the Ness of Brodgar Trust, with printing costs generously provided from the Orkney Archaeology Society Legacy Fund.
The book reviews work at the Ness over the past 20 years, at the same time looking forward to the project’s post-excavation phase. It highlights key discoveries, identifies crucial questions, and singles out a few of the team’s favourite finds, illustrated with many new photographs.
The exhibition, which runs from May 4 until September 30, 2024, is supported by the Orkney Heritage Society, Orkney Archaeology Society, Orkney Museums, The Orcadian and the Orkney Islands Council Culture Fund.
The museum’s opening hours are Monday-saturday, 10.30am – 5pm. Admission is free.