Gallery of the Excavation Site
A map of the Orkney Islands
Beam me up, Scott: Pike uses a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer at Orkney.
What real archaeology looks like. Shovels give way to brushes and trowels.
Digital views of the excavation site:
A. This little vestibule leading out from one of the doors in Structure 12 is where Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz ’11 and Elle Woolaway ’12 uncovered numerous Neolithic ceramic vessels.
B. We used a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to characterize floor deposits throughout structure 10. The data, coupled with last year’s finds, suggests that the immense building included a pigment production area in its northern corner.
C. Traces of paint found on an interior wall of Structure 8 were the very fist evidence in northern Europe that Neolithic people painted interior spaces.
— Scott Pike
Aerial views of the excavation site
On a good day, students take stock of their project in the sun; on a normal one, they battle rain, wind and mud.
