Painting Structure 12 and Structure 1…

And so the painting grew each day using my favourite bits from Structure 12 and in the middle bit, Structure 1.  I found that the hearth of Structure 1 was gorgeous in colour after its winter sleep under tyres and black plastic. From the edge of the trench, it appeared half had been dug out revealing layers of colours rich in amber, saffron, rust, and maroon.

The hazard tape around these 2 stones in Structure 12 indicates “touch me and it will all fall down!”

I purposely left one side of the hearth out of the painting so that those inner hearth colours could run freely into the center floor-like area of the painting.  Below that I reproduced larger than life, those wonderful repeated triangular designs from the triangular stone found in 2013.  https://www.scotsman.com/…/5-000-year-old-neolithic-art-found-in-orkney-dig-1-30

I have been constant in my attraction to these triangles

But back to the top where I exaggerated the east entrance of Structure 12, I was caught by the red and white hazard tape wrapped around two triangular shaped stones one of which appeared to be propped up.  Only recently have I recognized their greater meaning….”If you move me, all will fall!”  Somehow, accenting that in the painting seems oddly appropriate to the overwhelming cause of the dig as well as the possible reasons for its purposeful and ritual closing thousands of years ago.

On and around and beside many of the corners of the stones I have used my trusty stone tool to incise as many marks that appealed to me. 

A piece of flint and a found stone become my tools for incising on Structure 12 and Structure 1

I have it from Dr, Antonia Thomas ( author  Art and Architecture in Neolithic Orkney  http://www.archaeopress.com/public/displayProductDetail.asp?id=%7BA9758D28-EB53-4F53-AE25-533206C17D44%7D ) , that they appear and disappear just like all the originals.  The light just has to be right.  I have also painted on some “pecked” versions of the rounded shape or horner spiral or “heart of Smerquoy”

This stone was found this year in the new Trench J. Like the pecked stone found at Smerquoy, this was near a doorway.

around and about since these marks were also discovered here on the dig this season.