The Kitchener Monument

As part of our business idea I've been looking round Orkney for archaeology, sites of natural beauty, or wildlife that will be recognisable and of intrest to locals or tourists. On the far west coast of the Orcadian mainland is the Kitchener Monument on Marwick Head overlooking the Atlantic. It commerates the loss of Lord Kitchener in the First World War, whilst on route to Russia to help stiffen there resolve and improve their performance in the war. It is assumed that his ship struck a mine shortly after leaving Scapa Flow, where the Home Fleet was based. The monument was erected in 1926 by the people of the Orkney Islands.

It was an interesting problem - how do you make a plain stone tower on a barren hill top look interesting? Well Lord Kitchener was the model for the famous poster from the First World War so I combined the two. 0.3 and 0.7 staedtler pen in large moleskine sketch book (approx 15" x 6")

Stones and Ink

This is one of the houses at Skara Brae, a Neolithic village and part of Orkney's World Heritage Site (this was done on A4 with Staedler o.3 and 0.7). It is meant to be part of a series of designs for some t-shirts; part of a business idea Sue and I have whilst the wolf is banging and scraping at the door! Unfortunately the tourist season is nearly half over and the "pressure" of producing enough designs at short notice isn't helping any either! So what do you think - it would have a small company logo/motif at the bottom right hand corner along with the name "Skara Brae, Orkney" ??? white on black, red on green, red on blue, etc.

The Village was first uncovered in the late 1800's when storms exposed it under the sand dunes that had covered it for a very very long time. Its was excavated between 1925 and 1930 and is now known to date from , at its earliest, 3,200 BC. All the houses have the same 'template' with 'side board' facing the low entrance, fire place in the centre, bed stalls to left and right. Archaeological investigation also showed that 'industrial' activity was always confined to the same set areas. The passage ways through the village also appear to heavily proscribed as to use and route. All in all a very structured life with lots of taboo or organisation. A plan is below..

Below is also another design, for the interior of Maes Howe, a Neolithic Chambered Cairn (or Tomb) from about 2,700 BC. Also part of the World Heritage Site.

So living dangerously -"Wada ya think???"

Future Potential?

This is a drawing of an abandoned croft a couple of miles down the road from where we live. There are many such scattered across the Orcadian landscape, generally Orcadians prefer to build anew rather than do up (more room and facilities presumably). So often you can see a new house next to a ruinous stone building (for storage) next to a complete ruin or pile of stones, as every few generations a new building is constructed. Occasionally the old crofts are being done up or as is happening not far from this croft an old building is being incorporated into the new build - which is nice to see. This practise dates back to at least Viking times, I worked on a site on Westray where 3 Viking farms had each been built next to the proceeding one (mere feet apart) leading perpendicularly inland from the beach, over time.

This drawing was done this week as part of some design work for a business project that Sue (my wife) and I have, but proved unsuitable so I present it for you here...

Staedler 0.3 and 0.1 disposable pens in A4 sketch pad, original scan approx 8"x5"

An Annoyance of Visitors

Picture this, if you will, ...

You're knelt or squatting at the bottom of your trench about a metre below ground surface. The trench is miles from civilisation and not even visible from the nearest track. You are working hard when you become aware of a presence above your muddy, intriguing, and challenging environment. You look up above the edge of your trench to see a pair of legs attached to inappropriate footwear, all of which have seen better days and that have suffered from crossing the fields to your location. Before looking further you hear the, predictable, words "Found any dead bodies yet?", a remark followed by the self-appreciating laughter of the one delivering them...... The visitors/public has arrived!



OK I'm being unfair. The vast majority of visitors to site are polite, interested, intelligent, and enquiring. Even if they arrive ill-informed and have little knowledge, they want to know more of what's going on, they want to "understand". The vast majority that is, unfortunately, it's the other ones that you tend to remember - the idiots and fortunatly the odd bright star...



I remember explaining geophysics to a tourist (an old lady about 80 y.o) visiting our site on Shetland. Trying to explain in very simple terms she stopped me to explain that she was probably the first women to have attended her University and subsequently received a Doctorate in Physics, she understood the principles better than I did, and was exceedingly nice about it.



But my predominant memory of site visitors is of digging in North Yorkshire, in the Vale of Pickering. Standing at the side of the trench with some spare time on my hands I was emptying the buckets of spoil of those working hard below me (as it should be in the natural order of things!). I was explaining to the diggers in the trench that I wanted a dog, preferably a German Shepard, that would be trained to attack on hearing a certain phrase. If you uttered the ubiquitous, oft heard, phrase"Found any gold yet?" the dog would have your throat out before you could start laughing at your own joke! At this point I looked out across the field of beet, muddy wet and green, to see a couple approaching, no mean feat as we had not advertised our location and nor were we visible from the road. I told the diggers, who could not see them, that we had visitors. The most unpopular member of our disparate group, known to one and all as the "mad axe murderer" (you had to meet him and be there) said "it'll be mi purunts". I replied enquiring if his mother often wore a denim mini skirt, white high heels, and sported a bee-hive hair-do? ( this was the mid 1990's and predated Amy Winehouse's re-introduction of the bee-hive to the fashion conscious). Axe murderer replied that it was, indeed his "purunts".



Upon reaching the trench the mother looked down and asked (you guessed it..) "Found any gold yet?", before she could laugh at her own joke the trench erupted into gales of laughter. All we were missing was a German Shepard....

An Embarrassment of Post Holes

Often on sites with a large number of post holes the supervisor or Site Director will have the diggers (should be referred to as Excavators or Site Assistants really) stand in the excavated post holes and a photo is taken. This isn't as difficult as it sounds as many ancient post holes of large structures can be up to a metre across. The idea is to effectively show the pattern and thereby illustrate the outline of the "lost" structure. The problem is in the life of a site with later structures being built or alterations and additions to a structure, not to mention sites being re-used, you end up with more post holes than you can shake a stick at! Discerning any underlying pattern can send you quietly mad., with no certainty that what you think you have found is really there - to give you an idea, I'm still hoping to find the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, not necessarily in the Middle East.

Post holes are first 'sectioned' - half the hole excavated with the remaining half presenting a face one which can (hopefully) be seen tip lines, and sediments etc. Whilst still a student (c.1992) I returned to a dig in Yorkshire (yet again) from a dig in Shetland with what I think is described as a frozen shoulder (locked and agony to move). The trench supervisor left me in a corner on my own to dig , very slowly, a large medieval post hole, roughly rectangular, about0.75m a side and eventually nearly 1 m deep. Kneeling over the hole with one arm tucked in my shirt (in pain) precariously reaching down to trowel with one arm meant for very slow progress indeed! After 2 days (!) I found myself kneeling head into hole crying -but had to work as I needed the money.

Which brings me to the 'constant' of archaeology -beer! That night on the advice of a friend (?) I was drinking Thunderbird and stout mixed. After 2 pints and 4 cans of lager I was reduced to crawling on all fours and mumbling, and in those days I could hold my beer! The following morning I was as they say "right as rain", no shoulder problems and no pain, and even no hangover! The remaining half of the post hole, including drawing the section took me half a day to finish and life restarted.

Personally I've never worked on a site with a clear pattern of post holes, but have always found beer readily available (outside of working hours I might add) and usually in large quantities. Could perhaps the lack of ability to recognise a discernible pattern be related to beer I wonder. And please no lectures, I am today virtually tee total (well except for when 'digging').

Fish Flying Tonight!

During an already eventful afternoon last week,
(see www.flickr.com/photos/25889317@NO6/4679108495), walking the dogs on the beach at the Point beyond Stomness I was distracted by the loud anguished cries of a gull just above our heads. On looking up we saw a Large Black Backed Gull being 'mugged' by a Bonxie (Orcadian for an Arctic/Great Skua). And although the gull was bigger, it was, as expected, losing the fight. Almost immediately upon our seeing the combatants the gull 'threw up' a mackerel (about 10" in length!) which landed just a few feet away. So a quick 'snap' and on with the dog walk, they of course had noticed nothing; oddly enough the bonxie also seemed to have missed the mackerel as well. I left it for the gulls or for the bonxie to return.



With a busy afternoon I forgot about the photo at the time and so finally got round to trying my watercolours (again) this afternoon instead of falling asleep in front of a boring World Cup football match on the TV. This was in my larger moleskine journal along with an journal entry, but invariably the entries always look somewhat formal and structured - guess its my technical background.

I get my watercolours out and give then a try once every few months or so, though the results are never as fluid and light/translucent as I would like.

A Change of Direction?

Not much of a sketch, but covering for a colleague means 42+ hours this week. So that's either no time or no energy, take your pick. Meanwhile I have an application in for a "proper" job as a Road Services Technician, and no that's not laying down tarmac but surveying and mapping the roads and their associated "furniture", mostly road traffic signs. It's not archaeology but it is, however, surveying, one of my favorite occupations. So whilst I wait to hear about the short listing and call to interview it could be "Smiley Face" or "Not".
Oddly enough on Orkney they call this process "short leating". In my experience a "leat" is like a mill race where the water runs from the damn towards the mill wheel. Therefore at the moment I'm either treading water in the damn or shooting down the 'race' towards the mill wheel -interesting, I wait to hear.....

Oh yeah, the highlighter didn't show very well so the image had colour added on the computer.