This lecture presents the results of recent work in the Northern Isles of Orkney. Over the past few years new excavations have explored two Neolithic sites on Sanday: an early Neolithic settlement at Cata Sand and, just a short distance away, the chambered tomb at Tresness. These excavations have provided important insights into life on the Northern Isles in the early Neolithic.
We have new information on the first farmers to arrive in these islands, as well as evidence for wider, ongoing connections throughout the early Neolithic. These were not people living on the edge of the Neolithic world, but at the centre of a vibrant and successful archipelago well-suited to an agricultural lifestyle, and very much in touch with wider Neolithic communities.
This lecture is in memory of Mick Aston. Mick was a tutor in local studies at the Department before moving to Bristol University. Earlier he had made a major contribution to the archaeology of Oxfordshire through his work on the Sites and Monuments Record, then based at the City and County Museum in Woodstock.