Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Videos

  • 706840262.mp4

Downloads

Content

Dig Watch returns for the start of week four, and it's been a big day on site. As the structure begins to come into focus, Jackie and John reveal some of the most exciting discoveries so far, including what could be the entranceway, evidence of buttressing, and more of the emerging walls.

With just three full days of excavation remaining, there's still everything to play for. We also catch up with Dr Martha Johnson and artist Karen Wallis to explore the fascinating story behind pigments and the rocks being uncovered on site.

Where do you think the excavation will lead over the final few days? Let us know in the comments, and thanks for your continued support here on Patreon.

Files

Comments

Chris

Love the different colours of the rocks. Imo People always want to make things nice.

Kerry Hennigan

this is fascinating insight into the mobility (and creativity) of the Neolithic inhabitants of the Ness.

Alison Fuller-Shapcott

Thank you for the interview with the Geologist. There are so many different disciplines that can add to the knowledge of the site and it's good to get an oversight of what each can bring to the table.

Leitchy

Fabulous. Just goes to show: check the rocks! :)

Leonieke Aalders

The rocks - of course! What a great combination of fields coming together.

Trevor Brigham

Interesting point about the transformation overhead drone photography has brought, very rapidly too. When I trained in the late 70s, the method used on flat rural sites was an old one - build a scaffold tower with an old fashioned large format camera mounted on a rail so it could be moved backwards and forwards. The image was upside down on the glass viewing plate at the back, and the tower could only be moved with difficulty. An alternative on uneven sites and urban excavations was to stand precariously in the swaying bucket of an excavator or cherrypicker clutching an SLR. In the mid 80s, there was experimentation with cameras hung from kites and balloons or carried on microlights, and there it stayed until drones came along - such an improvement!

Jon Leslie-Smith

I really think that the coverage we are getting on this dig has really stepped up from what was already pretty good on the previous digs. Well done all

Melissa Lawrence

A master class in Dig Diary Excellence. Thank you. This is what i enjoying subscribing for

Gael Ferguson

That was great stuff on the rocks. Really good.

Bob Greaves

An interesting experiment would be to see how well the coloured rocks would adhere to the walling stones, given that they presumably didn't have any kind of paper then.

Pam

When I first started watching Time Team back in the Covid times, I was surprised that the team did not include a geologist. I'm American and I worked for archeologists and there was always a geologist on staff. The insights of the geologist on Orkney show how valuable the study of the rocks can be to understanding sites.

Carl Johnson

Nice to know even in the Neolithic time people didn't like mud on the kitchen floor and that final segment about the rocks, if only the Neolithic people had left us a note saying why. Hope the owner of the house wasn't like my grandfather, who always picked up a rock from every place he traveled and put them in his rock garden.

W Pierce

Thanks for the update with Jackie & John! It's all to play for these last few days! The interview with Dr Martha and Karen was brilliant; thank you for sharing it. The insight and detail in that discussion alone was incredible.

Anja Adam

That's a bit strange... All my favorite colors put on Paper simply by using stones?!

Carrie Hartley

Rocks tell such a story ..I never knew..thank you Geologists👏🏼

Edward Rooks

Wow! What an eye opening episode. The people who built this settlement are coming to life with trade, rock collecting, seafaring, use of a variety of earth colors, flagstones and a patio to remove muddy footwear.

Melissa Lawrence

Has Chalk or other sandstone been identified? Or too soft / acidic soils / degraded? Given the rate of erosion of Jurassic and White cliffs; they would have looked very different in Neolithic times. So perhaps thats a hint towards some of the stone / trade finds into Cranbourne Chase / Wessex?

Kat Shelton

I used to play with chalk rocks when I was a kid that came from a nearby creek. They came in white, pink, purple, and rarely bright red. It is so neat to think of humans so far in time and space from me, using colorful rocks to make colorful marks, much like I was doing as a child.

Jane McCormack

Hurray, more geology! Two more great questions have arisen now - can the types of stones in the building be identified to explain the anomalies in the geophysics, and how were the pigments used? Also, could the pigments have been used for body painting? This was done elsewhere for millennia before the time of the Ness.

Barbara Huber

Absolutely fascinating. Archeology is indeed a multidisciplinary art. Now - how can an art historian fit in there? Asking for a friend… ☺️

Davey

So glad you found the door. Is it facing South, directly at the Stones of Stennes?

Felicity Fields

Ok, the thing with using the rocks for colorants is wicked cool. And hurray for the formal entrance! For a moment when Jackie said John's wish had come true, I thought she meant a burial had been found. :P

Denis Oliver

Thank you for these reports.

Peter Szeitz

I'm a geologist/palaeontologist. We geologists sometimes work with archaeologists; however, I think geology, as an auxiliary science for archaeology, is a bit underrated—so is palaeontology. I had some cross-curricular studies in archaeology at the University, many, many years ago. I don't know if it is a common practise nowadays. (I even got a "B" from Introduction to Medieval Archaeology, which wasn't a bad grade, considering that most of the archaeology students got worse.) Anyhow, the different types of rocks add an interesting layer to understanding the Neolithic people's lives and thoughts. The use, collection, and "import" of different kinds is not a big surprise. Think about that, they had only rocks (and some organic substances, like antler, shell, etc., of course) for tools. Imagine if you can't use any metal objects, such as an iron (or bronze) hammer, nails, or knives, because they don't exist. You have to know all the available materials around you well. Which one can you use for the blade, which one for the hammer, which one for carving or chiselling, and which one for drawing? It's natural, they met other people and exchanged valuable materials. The question, at least for me, is whether these people were sedentary. And if yes, at which level? I don't think they lived there year-round. Do we know anything about farming there at that time interval?

Pam

Love the geological stuff, evidence of trade and bringing stuff from distant places. Also potential use of natural pigments, the possibilities are endless. Looking forward to the rest of the week, but sad it has to end.

Rebecca Mills

Three days!!! How very time team , really enjoying it❤️

Brett W Walters

If I had rocks that made colours, I would use them to "decorate" look at the colors with just a few bits of old rock... This whole dig has been fascinating...

Stephanie Neva

The interdisciplinary nature of archeaology is truly wonderful!

Jack

Loved the Geology inclusion!

Bron Lloyd

That was simply amazing!

Tim Rolph

Has the team considered using archaeomagnetism to date the fired hearth stones?

Tracy Poole

The rocks could be ground up to be used as pigment mixed with mud to make something akin to colored plaster that's used today. That could be used on the inside walls or areas within the houses, and of course the pigments could be made into paint with water and other substances.

Tracy Poole

Rocks - the original "organic" crayons!

Bob Greaves

That makes total sense (like the Romans did), but I don't know whether any remnants of wall plaster have been found at the Ness? Given their propensity for carving artwork directly onto rocks, I wondered whether they might do the same with colour? Maybe it was a combination of the two, by making their own paint pigments with water and applying that to the rocks like cave painters?

DIANA R NELSON

Thanks for the interview with the geologist. I love geology and great to have another perspective on the activity. The more disciplines the better.

Alison

Finally catching up on these episodes and I think this was the best Dig Watch I've seen! The information was presented in such a low key way that the story built organically - from someone "sketching" with some rocks, to speculation for what they might have used their colours for, to a mini geology lesson! Brilliant. More like this please - this was magnificent