From the RSPB…....Ness Ceramics…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:17 on 14 May 2025
From the RSPB…....
“I'm writing to ask you to use your voice to help nature once again. Right now, nature in England is at risk and facing one of its biggest threats yet. Thanks to people like you, over 84,000 voices have already spoken up to ask the UK Government to protect funding for nature-friendly farming. That’s incredible. But with just weeks left before they make a final decision on the future of this funding, we need to push harder.
The risk? A devastating cut to the nature-friendly farming budget – the single biggest pot of public money for nature in England. If that happens, we don’t just lose funding. We lose birdsong in our fields, bees in our hedgerows and farmers who care for nature forced out by a system that no longer supports them.
We’re running out of time. But we still have a chance to stop it.
It’s time to step up further— and it’s never been more urgent. Take two minutes today to email your MP and ask them to tell the Chancellor not to cut the nature-friendly farming budget.
Your MP needs to hear from you before the Government cuts the farming budget. Let’s show them that cutting support for nature is not an option. We’ve made it simple, with a message you can personalise — because your voice matters. Let’s make sure MPs tell this Government: cutting nature-friendly farming support is not an option.
Thank you for everything you’re doing for nature.
Yours sincerely,
Jason Hussein
Senior Campaigner, RSPB Campaigns and Mobilisation
***********************************************************************
Ness Ceramics…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ceramics-2025/
This was in m’blog last December….
“The Ness Ceramics….
A very big job to even begin to make sense of them all…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ceramics-meeting/
This was in m’blog in November ’23….
“Grooved Ware…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/grooved-ware-book/
What can I say, except….this would make a groovy Christmas present for a Grooved-ware enthusiast!
Remember this?.....
It’s big
And it’s Grooved
It was merry hell to move
The big pot
The big pot.”
And, in February….
“Cordon’s Inside Pots?....
An interesting Ness of Brodgar related item by Jan Blatchford….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/internal-cordon/
Once again, I’d like to be able to talk with someone who could explain The Ness of Brodgar…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/12/01/someone-who-could-explain-the-ness-of-brodgar/
Failing that, I asked my go-to man for matters pottanical, Andrew Appleby, aka ‘The Harray Potter’ ….
https://www.orkney.com/news/fursbreck-pottery
…and he replied….
“I think that the Bain Marie idea is sensible. I also saw this decoration on a sherd, and wondered about a jelly mould?
I thought of the Bain Marie in respect of interior base decoration on a wide pot from Scatness Iron Age Broch. I experimented with the heavily soapstone grogged pottery from there.
One base had finger compressed dents in it. I remade this pot. A winkle shell in each dent, with another pot on top of them allowed the oxygen bubbles to escape without making the interior pot jiggle about, causing unwanted wear and damage. I actually made hoof glue in the interior pot, just to see if it worked. The hoof melted and I had very sticky stuff indeed.
These particular pots are usually associated with a workshop/armoury. What you need in an armoury is hot, liquid, hoof glue for sticking the spear shafts into the ferrule of the spear.
Time doesn’t change things. Yes, you can have one Neolithic pot inside another to create a Bain Marie. A flat stone, too, could have been placed atop the grooves or cordons, allowing a large hunk of meat to be simmered without sticking to the base or the stone wobbling.
There was a huge pot base from The Ness with the remains of a cow’s head, which had been boiled for a long time. I do not know if there was a stone, or even a piece of wood under it. The bone mass had been boiled so much that no bone remained, just the teeth in their correct dental positions.
I preserved ox tails in jelly and fat using clay from Skaill Bay to make the pot. I simply simmered them in the pot until completely set and tender. I removed the bones when cool and allowed the mass of meat to go stone cold. The residual fat rose to the surface and set hard, forming an airtight seal. I removed the crust of fat three months or so later and ate the oxtail cold in its jelly. A wonderful several servings of potted meat!
Hugely thick pots will continue to cook the contents after the fire has died, such is their heat retention qualities.
Bonne repast”
The Ness just keeps on giving - including food for thought!
Preparing an Unstan bowl to cook lobsters. Thanks to Andrew for the pic.
PS
From the Ness of Brodgar blog....
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/stone-discs/
Maybe the circular ones were used as a divider in a Bain Marie? Maybe?”
All this post-excavation investigation needs funding!......
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/donate/
Ness Ceramics…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ceramics-2025/
This was in m’blog last December….
“The Ness Ceramics….
A very big job to even begin to make sense of them all…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/ceramics-meeting/
This was in m’blog in November ’23….
“Grooved Ware…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/grooved-ware-book/
What can I say, except….this would make a groovy Christmas present for a Grooved-ware enthusiast!
Remember this?.....
It’s big
And it’s Grooved
It was merry hell to move
The big pot
The big pot.”
And, in February….
“Cordon’s Inside Pots?....
An interesting Ness of Brodgar related item by Jan Blatchford….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/internal-cordon/
Once again, I’d like to be able to talk with someone who could explain The Ness of Brodgar…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/12/01/someone-who-could-explain-the-ness-of-brodgar/
Failing that, I asked my go-to man for matters pottanical, Andrew Appleby, aka ‘The Harray Potter’ ….
https://www.orkney.com/news/fursbreck-pottery
…and he replied….
“I think that the Bain Marie idea is sensible. I also saw this decoration on a sherd, and wondered about a jelly mould?
I thought of the Bain Marie in respect of interior base decoration on a wide pot from Scatness Iron Age Broch. I experimented with the heavily soapstone grogged pottery from there.
One base had finger compressed dents in it. I remade this pot. A winkle shell in each dent, with another pot on top of them allowed the oxygen bubbles to escape without making the interior pot jiggle about, causing unwanted wear and damage. I actually made hoof glue in the interior pot, just to see if it worked. The hoof melted and I had very sticky stuff indeed.
These particular pots are usually associated with a workshop/armoury. What you need in an armoury is hot, liquid, hoof glue for sticking the spear shafts into the ferrule of the spear.
Time doesn’t change things. Yes, you can have one Neolithic pot inside another to create a Bain Marie. A flat stone, too, could have been placed atop the grooves or cordons, allowing a large hunk of meat to be simmered without sticking to the base or the stone wobbling.
There was a huge pot base from The Ness with the remains of a cow’s head, which had been boiled for a long time. I do not know if there was a stone, or even a piece of wood under it. The bone mass had been boiled so much that no bone remained, just the teeth in their correct dental positions.
I preserved ox tails in jelly and fat using clay from Skaill Bay to make the pot. I simply simmered them in the pot until completely set and tender. I removed the bones when cool and allowed the mass of meat to go stone cold. The residual fat rose to the surface and set hard, forming an airtight seal. I removed the crust of fat three months or so later and ate the oxtail cold in its jelly. A wonderful several servings of potted meat!
Hugely thick pots will continue to cook the contents after the fire has died, such is their heat retention qualities.
Bonne repast”
The Ness just keeps on giving - including food for thought!
Preparing an Unstan bowl to cook lobsters. Thanks to Andrew for the pic.
PS
From the Ness of Brodgar blog....
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/stone-discs/
Maybe the circular ones were used as a divider in a Bain Marie? Maybe?”
All this post-excavation investigation needs funding!......
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/donate/
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