Orkney Archaeology Society Review – 2024
by Bernie Bell - 08:46 on 22 May 2024
Orkney Archaeology Society Review – 2024
It was a misty-moisty day in May, the Orkney Archaeology Review arrived in the post and I settled down to see what it had to offer this year.
What I’ll present here are my personal preferences – not preferences relating to the style of writing of the authors – but personal preferences relating to the subject matter.
As the King in ‘Alice’ advised, I’ll…. `Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. '
Sigurd Towrie writes of the Ness of Brodgar 2023 excavation and, as always with Sigurd, makes an interesting and thorough job of doing so. His article includes mention, and a photo, of the plank that was found in Structure 27 – yes - a plank – a Neolithic plank. I got very excited when I first read of this find….
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16441
Major finds at The Ness include wood, and bone, and ceramics and stone. Think of all the post-excavation work which will need to be carried out after the site is covered over at the end of this year’s, final, digging season. The work continues - and will continue.
The article entitled ‘A community-owned future for the unique Tomb of the Eagles?’ By Cameron Taylor, Professor Colin Richards and Esme Andrews is of great interest to me, as it will be to anyone who has visited/encountered/read about the Tomb of the Eagles. The title gives a clue to the contents and also gives hope to those who love the place, that the Cairn and the objects found there might once again be accessible to the public as they were for decades before Covid claimed another victim.
My favourite part of the article is the pic. of Ronnie Simison holding the skull of one of the ancestors. Once again – Thank you, Ronnie.
Here are my past ramblings about the place I refer to as The Eagle Cairn…
Bernie Bell: Orkney Walks (with stories) – The Eagle Cairn
An Appreciation of John Hedges: An Archaeologist
And, Jim Crumley’s response to the Eagle Cairn as described here….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/07/29/a-tale-of-the-eagle-cairn/
…very much chimes with me.
‘The Cairns: the story so far’ by Martin Carruthers holds much of interest for me, as I’ve pretty much watched the structures emerge from the earth year by year, revealing the life of a Broch in a stronger way than visiting, for example, the Broch of Gurness, can do. The Broch of Gurness is a fine place, but not ‘lived in’ as The Cairns is….
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16370
The Cairns is a relatively long-established dig site – the sub-title to Hugo Anderson-Whymark and Vicki Cummings ‘Blomuir: A lost passage tomb found - preliminary results from the first season of excavation at the Neolithic chambered tomb at Blomuir, Holm Orkney 2023’ tells the reader of the initial excavation at a newly discovered site. I wrote of this in m’blog….
“The Tomb Near Holm….
These days, lack of energy means that we don’t go out in the evening. We’ve learnt to accept this as how things are and, mostly, don’t mind too much - but sometimes I am sorry to miss something – and this talk by Hugo Anderson-Whymark was one of those things…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIUYajvT1Fo
Thanks to OAS for filming and posting it.
This site provides another link in the network of settlements in South Ronaldsay, and Orkney, in the Neolithic. Pieces of the puzzle, fitting together to make a more complete picture.”
If you scratch the surface of Orkney, it bleeds Archaeology – the sites just keep on coming. Some, unfortunately, are going – the site at Swandro, Rousay, is being eaten by the sea, as explained in ‘Saving Swandro from the sea’ by S.J. Dockrill and S.M. Bond. It really is a race against time and the elements.
And finally, an item by Dan Lee about the Tombs of the Isles Project – a community-focussed approach to gathering information relating to Neolithic Funerary sites in Orkney in which Dan includes links to the website which show how the Isles communities have become involved with their local sites.
The Orkney Archaeology review includes a series of images by Alex Leonard depicting Orkney people through the ages, culminating in a solder from the First World War. Sites from the War years, First and Second, are becoming of increasing interest to historians and archaeologists. Some of these sites also need to be fully investigated and conserved before they disappear too.
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/11/14/rerwick-revisited/
If you buy a copy of the Review (available from the OAS shop….
https://shop.orkneyarchaeologysociety.org.uk/
…FREE to Members!) you’ll find that there are articles which I haven’t written of here, such as one about pre-Christian Viking Age Orkney – ‘Hall, Shrine & Thing’ by Mark Woodsford-Dean. I’m afraid the Vikings leave me cold – a way of being that doesn’t appeal to me at all. And, from Dr. Hugo Anderson-Whymark an item entitled ‘Parallel Forms’ which is about ‘tanged points’ from Brodgar, in which I am interested, but - a bit too specialized for me. The point I’m making is that there are articles to appeal to many interests, covering different eras and sites.
Have I tempted you to buy one?
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