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Is the Brodgar Butterfly really a butterfly? (ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-11 05:10:00
Imported:
2026-08
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We had so many of your questions about The Ness of Brodgar that we decided to make another podcast answering them! Martyn Williams is at the neolithic site on Orkney with Anne Mitchell, one of the site's directors. Martyn and Helen put your questions to Anne including a discussion about the iconic Brodgar Butterfly.

As a Time Team member you get the opportunity to ask a question for Helen to answer. Use the chat section here on Patreon to ask anything you like about archaeology, history or Time Team. We can't wait to read them!

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Comments

jason

Enjoyed that! Well produced and presented. Helen is always wonderful to listen to. Thanks also to Anne.

Elisabeth

Great questions and answers! Amazing to think of a population of 35,000 going about their lives. Oh for a time machine!

Anja Adam

That was quite interesting. Thank you for mentioning my question. However, the answer leaves me somewhat unsatisfied and puzzled. Surely the "butterfly" must have had a meaning for the people of the Ness, just as the cross still does for Christians today (or the fish at the very beginning of Christianity), or the crescent moon for Islam. When a symbol appears as frequently as the "butterfly", it must have had a significant meaning!

Aaron Martin

Wouldn't it be neat if the butterfly was an ancient shipping label that determined what construction site the stone was supposed to be shipped to?

Michael Shore

It exactly like the 'butterflies' we were taught to make in first aid

Pam

Love these podcasts, especially coming from the kitchen at the Ness, real feeling of involvement and camaraderie. Thanks to Anne for her fascinating observations.

W Pierce

Wonderful interview with Anne Mitchell, thanks for sharing that Martyn and Helen!! And a fantastic discovery that the Aurora crackles!! Who knew?!?

Andrew Stewart

As with Anja, I’m so very, very thankful for the inclusion of my question! I realize that we will probably never know — yet, I feel it must have had significant meaning. In such a place and during such a time when celestial observations must have been so closely related to life, it’s hard for the mind not to wonder if they were observing, marking, and likely celebrating the change of the seasons. I can’t help but think the figure-8 pattern the sun traces in the sky over the course of a year, the Analemma, would have been known to them and would have been a powerful symbol to them.

Tracy Poole

I'm glad the cruise ships bring commerce to the Orkneys, but it makes me sad to think of the influx of tourists swamping everything when they disgorge their passengers.

Cheryl

Interesting to hear Anne firmly decline to interpret the butterfly because people's interpretations are about their own culture and not that of the peoples who made the art (whose reasons may vary over their own time.) I prefer Anne's position on the question to that of the initial inquirers, especially when watching early TT with such frequent finds of " ritual" objects and religious interpretations. TT has taught me that scientists need to be careful of imposing their culture on the past.

Carrie Spencer

Perhaps it was a clan symbol - a mark of ownership. It looks like a double axe head.

Sheila Sanderson

Could the scratch marks on the stones be maker’s marks as found in medieval churches? So the chap with the butterfly mark was clearly very busy.