Chance Discovery of Bronze Age Settlement on Sanday

From the Orcadian:

"Archaeological discoveries are often made when least expected, and this is exactly what happened on Monday, at Tresness, Sanday.

In very poor weather, Professor Jane Downes (University of the Highlands and Islands), Professor Colin Richards (University of Manchester), Dr Vicki Cummings (University of Central Lancaster) and Christopher Gee (ORCA, UHI) were walking out to Tresness to examine the eroding stalled cairn on the point.

But en route, they discovered the remains of no less than 14 Bronze Age houses, distributed over a kilometre stretch of sand.

What this discovery reveals is that an entire Bronze Age landscape on Sanday was covered by as the sand dunes formed in the second millennium BC.

But it was the scale and density of occupation that really surprised the archaeologists as they proceeded along the ness. Not only are house structures present but working areas are also visible"

orcadian.co.uk/2015/12/chance-discovery-of-massive-bronze-age-settlement-in-sanday/

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