A trip to the past....

 

It's said of Orkney, scratch the surface and it bleeds archaeology.  Which is pretty much true - as agriculture has been the mainstay of the islands, with no heaving industrialisation, the landscape has been pretty much undisturbed.  Sometimes farmers plough up some stones and find treasures, or they quietly cover them over again! But there's lots of archaeology already excavated (Skara Brae etc) and newer ones being excavated around the isles.  The "biggie" is the Ness of Brodgar which opened this week.  I haven't been for a visit yet.  But one dig that finished this week was of The Cairns in South Ronaldsay, a broch or round house.  This is quite near me (compared to when I was ots (a woman's jawbone in the skull of a fin whale among the most memorable to me).  But lots of information re everyday lifte of the folk who lived and farmed in the area.  The soil that has been dug out of the broch has been bagged and will be analysed, along with lots of other artefacts.

I'm no archaeologist so here is a link to their blog, and below are some pretty random photos I took on the day!

You can make out the curve in the walls in the photos

Animal bone finds...

Tools of the trade

You can make out a midden of shells middle left.  These are being carefully excavated, counted and assessed.  It's in this corner, I think that the whale skull and human jaw bone were found.

A post hole - this is probably from a later settlement outside the broch, robbing or using stone from the broch itself.

A clearer view showing the roundness of the walls

A saddle quernstone for grinding of grain

And here is a link to the 2023 excavation at the Ness of Brodgar in Stenness.