Making a Mark by Jones Andrew Meirion;Díaz-Guardamino Marta;

Author:Jones, Andrew Meirion;Díaz-Guardamino, Marta;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2019-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Ness of Brodgar, Mainland, Orkney

Only one artefact was analysed from the Ness of Brodgar, the so-called ‘Brodgar boy’. The Ness of Brodgar (Card et al. 2017; Thomas 2016) is an immense settlement whose complex history is still being revealed by excavation. Recent radiocarbon analysis of the features excavated so far suggest the earliest activity began in the 31st–30th centuries cal. BC with occupation down to c.2800 cal. BC. There then follows an interval of activities, with occupation continuing down to the 25th century cal. BC or possibly the 24th or 23rd century cal. BC. The Brodgar boy was associated with activities in structure 10, which fits within the date brackets discussed above.

The Brodgar boy (Fig. 8.4) is a ‘figurine’ fashioned from a sausage of clay. It has a series of pinched grooves around its circumference and two dotted ‘eye’ impressions at its upper end. No reworking was recorded for the figurine, though it should be noted that it resembles two other categories of decorated artefacts examined in this project. In form it is very like the chalk phalli from southern England, while the series of pinched grooves running around its upper end bear a close resemblance to the decorated antler and bone pins from Irish passage tomb contexts. Given this, it is possible that this artefact is less a human representation and more a skeuomorphic form recalling distant artefact forms.

FIGURE 8.4 The Brodgar Boy.

(IMAGE: MARTA DíAZ-GUARDAMINO)

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