Talking rock art with Antonia…
Dr Antonia Thomas features in a new Time Team video on prehistoric rock art, contrasting that found on Ilkley Moor with the Neolithic carvings in Orkney and the Ness of Brodgar.
Category: Bronze Age
Exploring Cladh Hallan with Professor Mike Parker Pearson
We’re staying in the Western Isles for Friday’s UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar, which will see Professor Mike Parker Pearson explore Life and Death in the Bronze Age: mummies, metalworking and much more at Cladh Hallan.
Institute director’s book on Orcadian Bronze Age burial practice out now
‘Animating the Dead: An Archaeology of Bronze Age Burial Practices in Orkney’ by Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards is out now.
At the Knowes of Trotty with Jane
Some photographs of Saturday’s excursions to the Knowes of Trotty as part of the first Orkney Archaeology Festival.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day twelve
That’s this season’s dig finished, the trench backfilled and we’re beginning to get packed up for the journeys home.
Spurness 2025: dig diary day ten
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.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day eight
Our first pottery, an elusive wall section and a spectacular flaked stone adze!
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day seven
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.
Spurness 2025 – open day and talk
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.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day five
The covers are off and the archaeology continues to perplex!
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day four
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.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day three
Full steam ahead – deturfing and cleaning continued but the southern wall has emerged.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day two
Thwarted by Storm Floris! Although the weather saw digging cancelled, there was a chance to see some Sanday archaeology up close.
Spurness 2025 – dig diary day one
Day one of our excavation in Sanday – and it was a day of deturfing and cleaning.
3D model of the Spurness prehistoric structures
A 3d model from Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark showing the Bronze Age structures in Spurness, Sanday, under excavation in 2018.
Back to Sanday to investigate the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition
A team from the UHI Archaeology Institute is back in Sanday to continue excavating a Neolithic/Bronze Age site.
West Mainland excursion explores Neolithic and Bronze Age sites
A busload of archaeology students were in Orkney’s West Mainland on Tuesday for a tour of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites that took them well off the beaten path.
A brough and a broch – Yesnaby trip considers the Bronze and Iron Ages
The west coast of Mainland Orkney was the destination for a small group of archaeology students yesterday, with a field trip to Yesnaby and Borwick.