Category: Bronze Age

The Spurness excavation in Sanday draws to a close but we’re looking forward to getting back next year.

Photographs of the stone artefact recovered from the wall of the Spurness Early Neolithic building.

Today’s update from Spurness, Sanday, by Professor Colin Richards.

Today’s update from Spurness, Sanday, showing the scale of the monumental Early Neolithic building.

More divisional orthostats suggests Early Neolithic building was more monumental than first believed.

Tomorrow’s open day at the Spurness excavation site in Sanday is going ahead with tours planned every 30 minutes. The site will be open from 10am until 4pm.

Back on site, we’ve got a side door to the Early Neolithic structure.

A day of enlightenment, with several things that were difficult to interpret began to make sense.

An exceptional day, but not entirely for the expected reasons.

That’s this season’s dig finished, the trench backfilled and we’re beginning to get packed up for the journeys home.

The penultimate day of excavation saw a buzz across the site as we race to get as much done before backfilling the site on Friday.

Our first pottery, an elusive wall section and a spectacular flaked stone adze!

The second and final week of this demanding, but rewarding, field season got under way today with a full complement of student diggers and volunteers on site.

We’re hosting an open day at the excavation site and the Sanday Heritage Centre on Sunday, August 10, followed by a talk in the school on Friday, August 15, at 7.30pm.

The covers are off and the archaeology continues to perplex!

The bulk of the infill at the western end of the Bronze Age structure is now gone – ready for the covers to come off tomorrow.