Diary of a Shopkeeper, 18th August 2024

The final days of digging at the Ness of Brodgar have created excitement across the county, and far beyond. National press and TV have come to take one last look at the amazing structures at the heart of Neolithic Orkney, before they’re filled in and covered up. More importantly, over 20,000 people have been logged as visiting the site this year. Equivalent to nearly the entire population of Orkney, this number is a great testament to both the attraction of the site and the commitment to community engagement of the professionals and volunteers involved.

Actually, to talk in those terms is not quite right, as it suggests that the archaeologists, students, shop helpers, guides, and carpark marshals are not themselves part of the community. What struck me on my several visits to the Ness this summer is how much all of those folk are the community, just as much as we awe-struck onlookers.

This was never clearer to me than on the very last day of the dig. Diggers and scrapers worked valiantly till the last minute, turning up beautifully decorated stones at the last gasp. Senior archaeologists flitted from trench to trench, directing, encouraging, interpreting. Artists, photographers and planners recorded what the ground had given up. The team in the finds hut cleaned and catalogued. Volunteers in great numbers – everyone keen to be there on the final day – shepherded the crowds of visitors with efficiency and enthusiasm. And all of these folk, engaged in probably the most exciting work of their lives, took time off again and again to answer questions, to venture opinions, to share recently discovered treasures, and to exchange stories about this season’s dig and the two decades of digs that had preceded it.

The plastic tapes that separated the trenches from the walkways were there to save us from falling into the holes. They represented no barrier between the archaeologists and the onlookers. In reality, there was no barrier: despite our different roles, we were all part of the same celebratory community. What’s more, the community we are part of now has remarkable continuities with the community of five thousand years ago.

Analysis and interpretation of recent excavations will reveal much more in the years to come. But already we know that Neolithic Orcadians built sturdy stone buildings to protect themselves from the weather; that they attributed special prestige to cattle and the rich sustenance they provide; and that they gathered in great numbers for a whole range of purposes. Whether trading, trysting, feasting or politicking remains to be confirmed. Possibly all those things and more.

Why do we gather in our thousands for the Dounby Show or the County Show? Everyone attending the showparks has a slightly different mix of motivations, from admiring the livestock to visiting the beer tent. For that matter, why did 20,000 people visit the Ness this summer? Some to learn about history, some to marvel at the jaw-dropping stonework, some to see something special and enigmatic, and some because they seek a mystical connection – for ‘ritual purposes’, as archaeologists used to say when they couldn’t explain what was going on.

What has been going on at the Ness these past 20 summers is not an exhumation of the past. It’s not uncovering a way of life that is entirely dead and gone. Rather, it’s a continuation of the past into the present.

What is being uncovered – the buildings, the art, the cattle bones – have their close equivalents today. And the acts of uncovering and raking over and communal celebrating that the dig has consisted of is itself a continuation of the gatherings and celebrations of 5,000 years ago.

Every day, hundreds of visitors to the dig asked, ‘What was it for? What did people do here?’

One reasonable answer was, ‘Pretty much what you are doing here right now.’

And what did Neolithic Orcadians do when the Ness buildings had served their immediate purpose, or when their own priorities changed? They filled them in and covered them over. Exactly as the archaeologists are doing this week.

The photos show Anne, Jo, Jeannie, Antonia, Sigurd, Marc, Travis, and Chris in the last week of the dig. Just a small selection of the wonderful Ness community we got to know and love over the years!

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 22nd August 2024. A new diary appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations, and occasional small corrections or additions.