This time two years ago the excavations had just rounded off after 20 years of remarkable discoveries, and the Ness of Brodgar team settled down to the long haul of detailed study of all the finds. But then came something totally unexpected. A Ground Penetrating Radar survey of the site showed something described by the Ness director Nick Card as “totally at odds with what we are used to seeing at the Ness”. So a small team went back on site this past July to open a small trench to investigate.

The Time Team provided funding and assistance and filmed the work, and the subsequent broadcast is going to generate a huge interest worldwide. Nick Card has now had time to take stock of the findings and look back at the story – and to give the latest update of what it could mean for the future.

This is one of several events marking the post-excavation progress for the Ness of Brodgar. It follows the closure of the main excavations two years ago, the ongoing work on the vast array of finds, and the four-week reopening of a small area for an additional investigation this past summer.

News from the finds comes from Prof. Ingrid Mainland, Assoc. Prof. Scott Timpany, and Prof. Mark Edmonds, while Nick Card reports on this summer’s work and also leads a walk around the site and provides at first hand the latest updates.

In 2020 during the Covid break, Nick Card, Ingrid Mainland and Scott Timpany gave a progress report on the continuing work of scientific analysis of the finds in The Science of the Ness. That same year, in a film made by Mark Jenkins, Stories in Stones, Mark Edmonds went in search for some of the stone artefacts discovered on the site.

The atmosphere of excavations at the Ness of Brodgar has been captured in a composition of drawing, painting and sound, Drawing Archaeology, made by Dr Karen Wallis who was an Artist in Residence on the site from 2016. It’s more than a documentary, aiming instead to evoke the physical existence of the dig and the process and the everyday presence of the archaeologists, in a flow of voices and images.

For the latest information at any time, the Ness of Brodgar website has a wealth of details and resources.