wideford

An enclosure that may have originally been about a hundred metres across found at edge orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgarenclosure.htm

Peninsula man-made for 2-4 metres down, chambered tomb/s, decorated cist lid etc. etc. with pics
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgar2006.htm

Sigurd’s report on the latest doings (including a house contemporary with the Knap of Howar) with twa photos orkneyjar.com/archaeology/knowes2006.htm

C14 dates for burials at the Knowe of Skea (HY44SW 2) on the edge of Berst Ness [HY44SW 3] push back the age of these from Viking to 200BCE-400ACE. Many of them (mostly children) consisted of bagged bodies dropped vertically into spaces created by removing material from the structures’ walls. Article with photo on Sigurd’s site orkneyjar.com/archaeology/knoweskea2006.htm

(For those with transport) Sunday July 30th there are guided tours from one o’clock till five, including the ongoing excavation of an ‘early’ Neolithic structure with central hearth.

Radio Orkney reports that a socketed bronze axe-head was found a few months ago whilst digging in the Highland Park peats in the Hobbister area of Orphir. This LBA artefact is [believed to be] the first of its kind from Orkney.
Story and pics orkneyjar.com/archaeology/socketedaxe.htm

From Radio Orkney this morning ; a just completed survey (jointly funded by the Flaws family and the O.I.C.) of the island of Wyre [Weir/Veira] found five mace-head fragments and also miniature soft stone axes in a field, made from non-local stone (Hebrides suggested as source).
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/wyresettlement.htm

Radio Orkney’s monthly “Orkology” last night had a report on a small-scale dig at the Ness of Brodgar to ascertain the cause of slip observed recently by the farmer at this feature. They found many pieces of Corded Ware and a pitchblende fragment, bolstering the theory that the known revetments are in connection with a large chambered tomb – the admittedly limited excavation found no IA material to back up the theory that we had a broch here (though one should bear in mind that locally we do have precedent for a broch built over a CT at The Howe).

timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1881612,00.html

Saved because faery colony held to be beneath it, this is not St.Fillan’s Seat but a boulder over a plague pit (see themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=28343)

Sigurd’s report orkneyjar.com/archaeology/minehoweburial2005.htm
(extension for burial recording was granted).

orkneyjar.com/archaeology/trotty2005finds.htm has the newspaper report from last week after the re-discovery of the amber beads. The image of the cist area shows the pair of standing stones that hem the cist itself.

On Radio Orkney this morning (first few minutes at bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/console/index.shtml?listen=/scotland/radioscotland/media/news/orkney ) a report on the re-discovery of the amber beads (not disintegrated as feared) dropped back into the famous cist at the time of the original dig, so they are finally back to start.

Work finished today on what was left of a presumed chambered cairn (HY42401383) on Quanter Ness, only a little further coastward than the Crossiecrown settlement. Indications are that it was dismantled early on (Quanterness chambered cairn is across the road and up the lower slopes of Wideford Hill) and may be a crossover between the purely domestic and the religious type of site. Though there is no dating evidence it does share an alignment with the Tomb of The Eagles. After the exploratory dig it has now been covered over.
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/ramberrycairn.htm

On Radio Orkney it was announced that a student who had been doing research around the Bay of Firth with no success found a large amount of flints when turning their attention instead to a field by the Loch of Stenness (following up on a tip given to them as a result of Colin Richard’s fieldwalking). Mesolithic tools have turned up before in Orkney (e.g. Yesnaby) but in amounts small enough to be explained as people passing through. This site having produced enough for a doctoral thesis is a strong indicator of an actual settlement, probably underwater at the loch margins.

The significance of this is that if some Neolithic ideas started in the Orkneys it would help for there to be a previously settled group of people to have developed them, otherwise you require the first Neolithic settlers to have come up with them almost as soon as they reached here i.e. did the ideas evolve from within a society or arise from contact with a specific environment (a dichotomy something like that leastways).

Long article on Knoxnews.com all about these 4.5 – 10,000 year old glyphs covering the Judaculla Rock in North Carolina, with info on folklore and history too.

knoxnews.com/kns/news_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_359_2585278,00.html

In the Arkon Beacon Journal long article on hotel’s collection of rock art versus a state park’s outdoor rock art, the question of which is the best way and of Native American sensibilities.

ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/7705929.htm

Dimensions and probable date given here:

dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20021118/temple.html

2500~2300 B.C.
Max. 186 yard ovoid composed of trees roughly 2.2 yards across.