Last year and early this season I followed the history of Trench Y, which was meant to be a quick excavation to find the wall surrounding the Ness of Brodgar. They didn’t find the wall – just a few bits of archaeology including one or two nice finds and a hearth.
Today, sitting in a (relatively) gentle breeze beside Trench Y, I watched around twenty people shovelling the spoil heaps back into the trench. This is the absolute final phase of its existence – although there is a layer of black plastic covering the archaeology, just in case someone ever wants to reinvestigate the site.
Despite the number of people working, it was taking a long time. This had been a deep trench. The mound already backfilling the end near the water was fairly quickly levelled – but the top of the trench, a metre deep remained.
The afternoon break was over and, with only half an hour to go before home time, people were beginning to flag. Fortunately the Director came and said the job could be finished another day…
Final Trench Y drawing to follow in due course…
