Star find of the day is this bone pin spotted by the eagle-eyed Christina, Alan reckons it's probably Pictish:
This would fit in nicely with other finds from the same area, which is quite a high level at the Pictish/Viking transition outside the tomb walls in one of the extension trenches where Christina's been working, inside a new building that's just been uncovered:
At least it wasn't as hot today as yesterday, it started out being perfect digging weather, slight breeze to keep the bugs away and overcast, brightening up a bit but then the weather turned and the rain started to make its way in after lunch. Suppose three dry days in a row would've been too much to hope for the way our weather's been this summer. The lower part of the site is decidedly wet anyway as we've reached the water table and bits keep flooding, which makes everything very claggy, not particularly great to dig in the dry, let alone the wet.
That's Sarah George in the picture by the way, in real life the subject librarian for archaeology at the University of Bradford library, who always comes for a week's digging with us, and spends four days travelling to do it - that's real dedication for you, so she deserves the reward of a really claggy midden to dig.
By afternoon tea break the weather had really closed in for the day, causing a bit of a huddle in the tea tent:
It was starting to be a bit sauna like in there, but at least it doesn't seem to leak which is a bit surprising considering how cheap it was. At least everyone's got good use out of their waterproofs this year, last year everyone brought them and hardly used them.
Don't forget if you're in Orkney that tomorrow night Thursday 18th July is the annual Swandro lecture at the King Street Halls in Kirkwall, 7.30pm hosted by the Orkney Archaeology Society, all welcome, free entry and of course a raffle (a great Orkney tradition, the only events that don't have raffles are weddings and funerals!)