A. L. Kaplan

Tag: archaeological dig

  • Post 6: My Trip to Scotland: Part 6 – Ness of Brodgar & Ring of Bodgar

    Post 6: My Trip to Scotland: Part 6 – Ness of Brodgar & Ring of Bodgar

    After seeing The Stones of Stenness, Maes Howe, and Skara Brae, I didn’t think it could get better. But it did. We got to go to an active archaeological dig!

    Ness of Brodgar covers 6.2 acres. Excavation on this Neolithic site began in 2004 and ended this summer. We were lucky enough to be there on the last open house before they closed the site. Isn’t that cool? Some of the structures were started around 3300 BC, but the there is evidence of activity way before that.

    We made a brief stop at the Kirbuster farm museum. The Fire Hoose is from 1595. Note the stone roof.

    Robert Stewart, half-brother of Mary Queen of Scots, became Earl of Orkney in the late 1500s. This is what’s left of his palace in Birsay.

    But the real highlight of the day was the Ring of Brodgar

    They don’t know much about Brogar, but they think it was built between 2600 and 2400 BC. It is older and bigger than Stonehenge. It may have been used to observe the moon.

    36 of the original 60 stones have survived. The tallest is 4.7 meters tall.

    The circle is 104 meters in diameter and is encircled by a 135-meter henge.

    BTW, while I was there, an article came out about the alter stone at Stonehenge. Seems it wasn’t quarried from Wales as originally thought. It came from North Western Scotland Orkney area.

    Wrapped up our last night on Orkney Island with dinner from the sea. Wondering what those things around the scallops are? They are the reproductive organs. Did you know that scallops are hermaphrodites?

  • THE DIG

    Lush green covered the banks of the river. It would have been beautiful were not for the scull in my hand. Finding bones on an archaeological dig wasn’t unusual, but his one was different. Caucasian, male, one gold tooth, just like Brendan Harper, one of the students who disappeared three years ago.

    The university didn’t seem to notice how many students dropped Professor Hamilton’s classes or simply vanished over the years. And I mean years, as in decades. My boss red flagged the case and I’d spent two years undercover waiting for him to slip up.

    “Are you ready to join your classmates, Miss Van?”

    Icy fingers touched my shoulder and the scull crashed to the ground. It felt as though the temperature dropped fifty degrees. I could feel a tug on my soul, feel my life force drain away even through the protections. Panic closed in. If I didn’t act soon I’d be nothing but a withered corpse for some future victim to find.

    A twist of my wrist slipped the magic dagger into my hand as I spun around. I plunged the weapon deep into the lich’s emaciated chest. His red glowing eyes widened in their dark sockets. Bony hands clenched my neck even as his body disintegrated.

    “You can’t destroy me,” he hissed. “I’ll be back within a week. Your soul will be mine.”

    “Not this time, Lich. I destroyed your phylactery this morning. Oh, and my name isn’t Miss Van. It’s Miss Van Helsing.