This summer, students from the UHI Archaeology Institute were instrumental in a major, and eye-opening, discovery at the Ness of Brodgar complex in Orkney.
Overseen by ORCA’s Kevin Kerr, the students opened and excavated Trench Z as part of their excavation field school on site. The aim of the small trench was to look again at Structure Two – an early building first exposed in 2005 – and see how it related to the nearby Structure Five. Dating from c.3300BC, this was the earliest excavated building at the Ness.
But little did the students, and the dig team, know what lay within Trench Z or its importance.
Work gets under way in Trench Z. (📷 Sigurd Towrie/Jo Bourne)
By the end of their two weeks on site, the students had revealed some very large boulders in their trench.
Further investigation by their supervisor, Kevin, revealed these to be part of another 4.5-metre-wide wall section running north-west to south-east along the northern side of the huge Neolithic complex.
In the early years of the excavation project, it was thought the site’s northern and southern boundary walls were joined by connecting walls that enclosed the entire Neolithic complex – a least for a period of its long history.
Geophysical surveys had suggested the two boundary walls ran the width of the Ness of Brodgar isthmus and turned at their ends. This was confirmed in Trench J, where the exposed northern section of the “Great Wall” could be seen to curve beautifully to the south-east.
This fitted the idea of an enclosed complex. But despite this, and the geophysics results, subsequent excavation drew a blank. So much so that the idea of connecting walls was abandoned.
Until this season’s discoveries in Trench Z…
ORCA’s Kevin Kerr extending Trench Z to find an outer wall face. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)
Kevin alongside the exposed 4.5-metre-wide wall section in Trench Z. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)
The question now is how the “new” section relates to the northern and southern boundary walls. Given the similarities in construction it is almost certainly an extension of the “Great Wall”. But does this mean the site was enclosed, as originally thought, and did the wall end visible in Trench J just mark a break?
To answer these questions, more detailed geophysical surveys are planned for 2025, including high-resolution ground penetrating radar (GPR), which will hopefully shed more light on the subject.
If you are interested in studying archaeology at the UHI Archaeology Institute, details of our courses are available here.
