Ness Updates - Plus …….
by Bernie Bell - 09:43 on 02 September 2023
Ness Updates …….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/dates-2024/
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/the-updates-begin/
Plus…..
The Ness of Brodgar Book of Rhymes - Part Three
The Archaeologists Lament
Back-breaking positions
Dreich weather conditions
Bitten by bugs
Wind round yer lugs
Knees take the strain
Pads are in vain
Nails full of muck
Hope it’s not pruck
Then – there’s a ‘find’
The find of all finds
All so worthwhile
Ends with a smile!
BB July ‘23
Digging At The Ness
(Apologies to Billy Bragg’s ‘Between the Wars’)
I heard the thunder
I saw the lightening
I felt the downpour
Digging at the Ness
Hard-baked by sunshine
Then a muddy mire
That we mustn’t walk over
Digging at the Ness
BB – 11th August ‘23
We’re Watching
They’re closing down the Ness again
It’s easier now, than then
We did it all with soil and midden
This stuff’s beyond our ken.
They’re closing down the Ness again
They do it every year
We thought we’d done it for all time
Or something very near.
They’re closing down Ness again
They come from far and near
They’re not that different from us
That much is very clear.
They’re closing down the Ness again
Strange folk, strange clothes, strange speech
And yet what was once known to us
Is not beyond their reach
They’re closing down the Ness again
We watch them working hard
The man in charge, is one of us
A knowing–man named Card
They’ve sealed it off
That is the end
At least for one more year.
We watch, we wait, we hope, we know
Their time to learn, is near
BB
The Task Ahead
Now they’re back in UHI
With boxes, bags and trays
Examining those varied finds
Will take them
Years & months & days
Can’t be hurried
Must take care
Not missing any ‘clues’
Trying to piece the puzzle together
Having to sift and choose
The Finds Hut Team
Had everything
Tagged, labelled and arrayed
Now out they come
To be once more displayed
It will take time
And patience too
And this, my friends
Is where my rhyme makes
An appeal to you.
Funds will be less
There’ll be no ‘Ness’
‘Til next year’s digging season
Going there, seeing it
Gave to folk a reason
To donate - to dig deep
In pockets, wallets & purses
Now ‘Out of sight is out of mind’
Except for in these verses
So please, take heed
Of the Ness in need
Donate through this here link….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/donate/
With funds in place
It’ll happen again
Before there’s time to blink!
BB August ‘23
I was thinking….maybe when the dig has finished next year - that field could be a wildflower meadow – a kind-of ‘Ness of Brodgar Memorial Garden’.
To paraphrase a song my Mum used to sing…
“The Garden of Eden has vanished they say
But I know the lie of it still
Just turn to the left at the bridge of Brodgar
And stop when halfway to Bookan.
It's there you'll find it I know sure enough
For fortune has come to my call
The grass it is green around the Stenness Loch
And the blue sky is over it all.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Nc8wf2jDg
When the site is covered over we’ll still know it’s there and, hopefully, it won’t be forgotten again.
Not at all sound archaeologically…. just thoughts and images to play with….picture it…
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/12/01/someone-who-could-explain-the-ness-of-brodgar/
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