Seven Wonders of the Ness of Brodgar - by expert guide lecturer Peter Yeoman

Seven Wonders of a visit to the Ness...

1. Buildings – the Ness was built in stone, with all the ambitions of eternity that entails. This is the most sophisticated architecture seen in Neolithic Britain, with at least seven monumental structures discovered so far. It’s incredible to see that they were built around a courtyard focussed on a decorated standing stone. One of the largest buildings is 18m in length, filled with the collapse of its slated roof, which must have been supported by major timber rafters. Fine dressed stonework was used to create interior divisions like chambered tombs, but with hearths and room recesses. Each building is different, maybe because each belonged to individual communities from across Orkney. One massive structure has a cruciform central chamber reminiscent of the central chamber at nearby Maes Howe – this has been dubbed the Cathedral of the Neolithic.
2. A long time – life at the Ness spanned more than 10 centuries – a span of time which would have seen immense changes in ways of life, culture, beliefs, and societal structures. And so it’s not surprising that the archaeologists have found that use changed over this span, with buildings built over older buildings, coming in and out of use at different times.
3. Sacred space – something else you can appreciate only by visiting the Ness is that the site is enclosed within a natural amphitheatre, with multiple bands of sky, water and land. Maybe this was where they captured a controlled microcosm of their world, with places for the living and places for the ancestors. But what was the Ness? – temple precinct, pilgrimage place, tribal gathering place? Your guess is as good as mine!
4. Out of Orkney – the Ness helps us understand their belief system and culture, expressed in houses and tombs, along with ceremonial monuments on a massive scale. These Orkney men and women were instigators, not simply participating in the creation of sophisticated world views. We now know, thanks to radiocarbon dating, that these ideas spread from north to south, with its ultimate expression at Stonehenge and surrounding sites.
5. Rich lives – the site is incredibly rich in artefacts - polished stone axes, maceheads, bone tools and thousands of stone tools. Huge volumes of pottery sherds have been found, especially of Grooved Ware, possibly invented here as part of their society, and this was intricately decorated and coloured. The whole site is raised up on a massive mound of their rubbish.
6. A decorated place – incredibly it was found that buildings were decorated with stones inscribed with extraordinary geometric decoration, like the bands of decoration on grooved ware pottery, all likely to have been rich in meaning to these folk.
7. Closing time - much of this seems to have come to an end, gradual or abrupt, in around 2300 BC, marked in the archaeological record by abandonment of centuries-long traditions of burial practices, settlements, fields and farms, believed to be prompted by the migration of new people and practices. Now we only have 10% of the Neolithic genome. Many tombs and settlements are ‘closed down’ at this time, nowhere so dramatic as at the Ness, where demolition was marked by a massive ceremonial feast, chowing down on the meaty shins of 400 cattle. And not just any cattle – analysis has revealed that they could have been from a single herd, possibly in the ownership of a chief or priest. The Ness was finally eclipsed, and sweeping changes effected the lives of the people of late Neolithic Orkney.

A tour of the Ness is like visiting Troy with Schliemann or Tutankhamun’s tomb with Howard Carter. But don’t take my word for it, come and experience the wonder for yourself!

Peter was Head of Cultural Heritage at Historic Scotland, and part of the Orkney World Heritage Site management team.

https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/

Ness of Brodgar guidebook £7.00 available from their online shop:  https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/product/guidebook/

Orcadia – a suberb new book by Mark Edmonds about Neolithic Orkney written with scholarly rigour and poetic imagination: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orcadia-Land-Stone-Neolithic-Orkney/dp/1788543440