‘Flint’…… Trench T….. The Ness Cairn….
by Bernie Bell - 08:46 on 05 November 2024
‘Flint’……
Joanne Bourne – one of the People of the Ness - has published a book entitled, simply, ‘Flint’.
One of my nephews once introduced me to his girlfriend by saying ‘This I me Auntie Bernie – she’s stone mad’ – and he’s right. Mike also appreciates things stoney – and so, ‘ Flint’ looked like a must for us. We ordered a copy, both read it, and agree that it’s a gem of a book.
We used to live in Suffolk, where flint abounds and can be seen in the walls of many buildings. Here in Orkney – it’s hard to find, and its presence can raise questions of where it travelled from, and how.
Its hardness led to terms such as describing someone as being flinty-hearted.
Though they were knapped thousands of years ago, the edges of flint tools are razor sharp.
Colours vary from black, to a lovely toffee colour.
It’s a strange substance.
I’ll insert a pic. from an article I wrote for The Orkney News entitled ‘Conversations With Magic Stones’ about an exhibition of that name in Tankerness House Museum. As part of this exhibition there was a tale of an old chap who wore a flint arrow-head round his neck all his life. It had been an heirloom and he firmly believed that it would preserve him from evil. On his death he left strict instructions for it to be buried with him. The full tale is told in James Mainland Macbeath’s ‘Orkney’s Early Celtic Times‘ (1892).
And some folk still do the same thing………
This isn’t an old arrow head, it’s a ‘new’ one made from flint – the techniques are the same – the pleasing shape is the same.
In ‘The Stonebook Quartet’ – in the first book, entitled…..‘The Stone Book’ – Alan Garner writes….
“Mary cried out. It was wonderful. Father had polished the stone. It was black and full of light, and its heart was a golden, bursting sun.
'What is it?’ said Mary.
‘Ask the parson‘ said Father.
‘But what is it really?’
'I can’t tell you’, said Father. ‘ Once, when I was prenticed, we had us a holiday, and I walked to the sea. I left home at two in the morning. I had nothing but half an hour there. And I stood and watched all that water, and all the weeds and shells and creatures; and then I walked back again. And I’ve seen the like of what’s in that pebble only in the sea. They call them urchins. Now you tell me how that urchin got in that flint, and how that flint got on that hill.”
I’ve strayed a bit from Joanne Bourne’s book, which isn’t only about Flint – it’s about Time - about ‘ghost’ landscapes in which Flint was and still is scattered.
Deep Time, past Time offering gifts to the present.
And it’s about the joy of living, walking, being, feeling, finding – stones, fossils, bottles, old cars, skulls, bits of wood, plants – evidence of life - through Time.
And…people, there are people in Joanne’s book - through time and in places.
Best read it for yourself. Like I said – it’s a gem of a book.
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Trench T….….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/2024s-top-s27-corner/
When I saw the original Trench T – which has now expanded to have bits in it with names, such as Structure 27…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/about/trench-t/structure-twenty-seven/
…. I thought…… “There’s something going on there”.
I had a Trench T song, which went like this…………
"Trench T, Trench T, Trench T, Trench T
Trench T, Trench T, Treeeeeeeeeeench Teeeeeeeeee
(Repeat – ad nauseum)"
And I wittered about Trench T to all and sundry…………………………………
“Re. the Ness...it's not always the glamorous finds that matter. Trench T is a biggie………
With Trench T - it's not so much the central area, the bit that used to look like Eric's home made guitar, it's as they spread out in that area, that's where things are going to turn up - where things are turning up! It's outside the main 'enclosure', an area for workshops, manufacture, ( or slaughter) which may also have been used after the main, central enclosed area was de-commissioned. Maybe......”
And…..
“Stand at that point, in front of Loch View, and....look - LOOK at what you would have been seeing…….
Much Mahalo to all who are revealing this.”
Trench T puzzles the archaeologists – it even puzzles site Director Nick Card, and to do that it has to be very mysterious as Nick….knows. Nick wrote about Trench T for the OAS Review for 2017….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/07/11/orkney-archaeological-society-review/
…which is still available to buy from the OAS on-line shop…. https://shop.orkneyarchaeologysociety.org.uk/
The Ness Cairn….
I previously wrote about our Ness Cairn….
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16980
…and said I’d post updates as it develops.
The first layer is now complete….
Mike will ‘bed it in’ to give the structure a secure base, and we’ll continue to add varied stones from various parts of Orkney.
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