Well, this may well turn out to be the last post for a little while as we are gearing up to finish the dig and head for home. Backfilling has begun (I had the pleasure of filling and re-turfing the quarry trench myself yesterday) and it seems unlikely that we will make any more significant finds. Only one major question remains unanswered as I write, and that is where the original edge of the cairn ran at the eastern end before the 'horns' were added, which is looking like it may have been a surprisingly late date. The orthostats which make up the horn are placed on top of blocking material, which is on top of the courtyard paving, which was on top of the jet bead, which dates to around 2,000 BC, which is Bronze Age. This means that the monument was still being modified as late as 2,000 BC, which has taken everyone by surprise. If the early Neolithic pottery from the first phase was new when it was placed in the chamber it means that the monument was in use for over 2,000 years, which is a huge period of time. Of course, radio carbon dating may yet tell us another story. Another possibility is that the whole monument is Bronze Age, and the Neolithic material found is the product of a thriving Bronze Age antiques trade! No doubt other interpretations will also emerge in the following weeks and months as the material we are taking away with us gets analysed.

The public lecture in Campbeltown last night was a success, with an attendance of 34 people, and I would like to thank all who came. This brings the tally of people we have had direct contact with, either by delivering talks, displays or presentations, or by them visiting the site, to about 260, which is a great result.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the following people for thier help and support:

Angus Martin and Francis Hood

The Kintyre Antiquarian Society

Campbeltown Library

Muneroy Stores, Southend

Messrs MacCorkindale

National Lottery

Historic Scotland

And of course, Dr Vicki Cummings and Dr Gary Robinson, our dig directors who are responsible for creating this project and keeping it moving forward for the last 4 years. As Dr Henry Jones Jnr said, '90% of archaeology is done in the library' and so much of the work for this project has taken place in libraries, laboratories, amid hundreds of samples of quartz scattered across office floors and other such environments throughout the year by Vicki and Gary as well as actually out and about in Kintyre, and this work too often goes unrecognised.

This won't be the last entry in this blog. I will endeavour to post a few updates of the post-excavation work, but it will be the last time I sit in Campbeltown Library to do it for a while. I hope our readers have enjoyed the record of the dig, and am looking forward to hearing the results of post-ex and posting them to keep everyone up to date.

After the frenetic pace of discovery at the end of last week a day off on Saturday was very welcome, and saw various members of the team riding horses along the beach, mountain biking, doing their washing or just sleeping. It was the last day off before the end of the dig so a last chance to enjoy all Kintyre has to offer.

Sunday began with a late start, and was our open day at the excavation, and we were really unsure what to expect. Six people arriving on the dot of ten o'clock took us by surprise, but was very satisfying, and much to our delight and surprise by the end of the day we had shown well over 50 visitors around the site. We would like to extend a grateful thanks to all those who braved the showers and came out to see us and made the day such a success. We hope you all had a good time and perhaps learned something about the history and archaeology of the area.

Although the open day was a resounding success, the rate of uncovering finds did slow down a little, but picked up again on Monday. Yet more pottery (of unknown age as yet) emerged, and we have parts of at least seven different pottery vessels now, and will be keeping Rick Peterson, the pottery expert at UCLAN busy for quite a while! We also found a strange little tool of unknown purpose. It is just over an inch long, and seems to be worn to a smooth surface by use, and has a point. We suspect it may be some kind of leather working tool or fid, but have a look at the picture and if you know better please let us know! Monday also saw the discovery of a single, broken, but nonetheless finely made jet bead. This may be Neolithic, but is more likely early Bronze Age, and is significant because jet only occurs on one place in the British Isles, which is near Whitby in Yorkshire. This means the Bronze Age residents of Kintyre must have been in some way in contact with the people of Yorkshire, either directly or via intermediaries, which shows us that the society was not isolated and insular, but looking outward to distant lands and willing and able to exchange goods and probably also ideas. Of course, a jet bead also makes us think of the wonderful jet necklace in Campbeltown museum and another which was found in Campbeltown and is now on display in Inveraray Castle, and we must consider what jet meant to Bronze Age people. A total of ten jet necklaces have been found throughout Scotland, all finely made and constructed from this distant material, and must surely have carried with them some extra value, as a status symbol demonstrating the owner's far off connections and ability to commission fine craftsmanship and carving.

Finally, I would like to remind anyone who may have forgotten that our public lecture will be tomorrow night in the Argyll Arms Hotel, Campbeltown, starting at 8. Please come along and show your support, and learn about all we have discovered in the last 4 weeks of digging.

The last two days have been relentless, and quite simply, stunning. Every time I left site to check the email or put out a display or run an errand I returned to find another wonderful new discovery.

On Thursday afternoon we found, after being tantalised by small (but nice) fragments of pottery earlier in the week, a large section of an extremely well made early Neolithic carinated bowl. It has clear decoration made by pressing a piece of twisted cord into the wet clay before firing. We suspect that we have most of the bowl in fragments, and after analysis of the inside which may reveal what was stored in the bowl, and all the other analysis we will want to do, we hope it will be possible to put the pieces back together for eventual display in Campbeltown museum. This bowl was found on it's side, which made us think that the chamber must have been robbed at some point in the past, but we were very pleased with it anyway.
Next, just before we packed up for the day on Thursday we found fragments of early Bronze Age pottery, perhaps contemporary with the roundhouse on the other side of the hill. This also links the chambered tomb to the ring cairn on top of the hill very nicely.
Needless to say we went home on Thursday evening feeling very pleased with ourselves.

On Friday morning within an hour of beginning digging we began to find fragments of a different Neolithic pot from outside the chamber. This means that we were beginning to make a major contribution to the knowledge of early Neolithic pottery in western Scotland, and as technology has moved on so much since Beacharra (with things like contents analysis) we will ultimately be able to add significantly to the pool of knowledge about Neolithic Britain. Then we found, in the same area, what was described as “The best flint I have ever seen” by several different people (although some used rather more colourful language) which is again early Neolithic. It is about 4 inches long and beautifully made. By this time it seemed that we were pulling artefacts out of the ground on an almost hourly basis, so when I set off for the Muneroy Store in Southend to meet the locals for tea and cakes and tell them about what we are doing (which was a great success) I couldn't help but think I was going to miss out on some more exciting finds. I had underestimated just how good those finds might be though, and returned to find yet another complete early Neolithic pot had been excavated in my absence. This appears to be very similar to a Ballyalton bowl (which date to 3,500-3,300 BC) and if so might be Irish in origin. Of course, it is far too early to say just yet, and we will have to get a pottery specialist to study them to be sure.

We have also (we think) roughly worked out the sequence of construction of the tomb. First there was one chamber set within it's own cairn consisting of loose rock. Next, this chamber and cairn were incorporated into a single, long rock cairn, possibly with the chamber at the front of the tomb being constructed at this time. This construction would have included the large upright stones marking the perimeter of the tomb as well as the dry stone walling on the north side facing out across the valley. The facade at the front may also have been part of this phase, or may have been added later. Finally the front was blocked with rubble taken from the top of the tomb itself when it went out of use at a date we cannot yet determine. It may also be the case that in the Bronze Age cremations were also buried in pots in the main body of the cairn.

This leads us quite breathlessly into a very welcome day off from digging on Saturday, and with six days left until we have to back-fill the trenches and pack up, including the open day on Sunday and the public lecture in the Argyll Arms, Campbeltown at 8 on Wednesday, we are tremendously excited the prospects for the last week of the dig. We still have work to do in the area where all the pottery has so far been found, and have yet to excavate the forecourt area which may reveal a whole different set of finds, things like hearths, charred food remains, and flint knapping debris, this being the area used by the living, as opposed to the interior which was used by the dead.

Overall though, we have already made several astounding finds, which should ensure that Blasthill becomes one of the best known Neolithic sites in the country. Can this get any better? We shall have to wait and see!

Once again things seem to be moving quite fast! As I was posting the last entry, up at the site some wonderful early Neolithic pottery was being found, with a really nice bit of rim which should help identification. It is about 6,000 years old, and came from the side chamber which is in trench B. we found about 5 or 6 pieces in all, so we are wondering if it might be a disturbed deposit and that there will be more further down. As pottery didn't even exist before the Neolithic, this is very exciting, because it represents some of the earliest ceramics that can be found, and shows that people in South Kintyre we in residence and manufacturing all that time ago. It leads me to wonder how many direct ancestors of the people who built the tomb might still be living in the area. The chances of us finding any material we might get DNA from though, are virtually zero, so the answer to that will have to remain speculative. Perhaps some things are better left that way anyway!

The other particularly special find, from yesterday (Monday) is a wonderful leaf shaped arrow head, from just outside the courtyard area in trench A. This again is early Neolithic, and beautifully made. A tiny bit is missing from the tip, but it is otherwise complete and is quite an unusual find from a Clyde type cairn.

We also have the possibility (early days yet) that the monument may have been striped! In the courtyard area, between two of the upright stones, some of the tumble looks like it might just hide a little of the fill used between the stones. Like I said, it is early days, but it looks possible at the moment that the fill was made up of dry stone walling in alternate bands of thin pieces (about an inch thick) of pink and white stones! There is certainly precedent for this kind of thing, so it is quite possible that it is the case.

Finally, as far as the structure is concerned, the drystone walling in trench B continues to impress as it is being cleaned and cleared of debris. This is only on the side facing out across the valley. (It seems the builders wanted it to look impressive from that side, and weren't too bothered about the other side. Could this be an early example of aspirational architecture intended to impress the neighbours? A sort of Neolithic version of stone cladding?)

Meanwhile we had a visit from a gentleman from Historic Scotland on Friday (the wettest day of the dig so far) who was very impressed to see we had, despite the weather, people working on site. What he didn't see was that as soon as he had disappeared into the mist on his way home we packed up and decamped to the Tea Shop in Southend as fast as possible!

We also had a visit from Adam Stanford of Aerial-Cam who takes low level aerial photographs (amongst other things) of archaeological sites with a very fancy telescopic mast mounted on his landrover. Unfortunately Blasthill turned out to be the first site ever to defeat his 4-wheel drive, and we had to resort to the rather more low-tech 'camera on a stick' approach! We look forward to seeing and publishing his photos once thay have been suitably processed.

On a final note, I would like to mention (and invite suggestions about) the curious case of the beach quartz. Quartz is not uncommon in the area, nor is it uncommon on Neolithic sites. (it would seem they liked to decorate their tombs with it, which must have looked very impressive when the sun hit it.) But, at Blasthill, we are finding a lot of quartz which has been smoothed and rounded by water action, either river or sea. Blasthill is, of course, several hundred feet above sea level, so this beach quartz must have been brought up to the site by people. The question is, why? Why not use the angular (and more sparkly) quartz from the hill tops?

Next post will be in a few days, but in the meantime we will be on Argyll FM on Wednesday, sometime between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, and in this weeks Campbeltown Courier. Or of course you can come and visit us on site, either on our open day on Sunday (10-4) or any other time that suits you.

Things have been heating up on site in more ways than one! The weather has certainly had an impact as the diggers are slowly but surely being drained of energy by the heat, and a 4-wheel drive ice cream van would be very welcome, but the enthusiasm to dig is unwavering!
We have at last finished cleaning and drawing the plans of the stones (every stone recorded, which takes some doing!) and can now begin to remove the top layer and see what lies beneath. This is without doubt one of the most exciting phases of the project. The early stages yesterday revealed a small but unexpected pit, and as we get deeper into the monument we hope to not only find more artefacts but also answer some of the questions about the construction. We are starting to think that the area immediately outside the kerbstones may have been cobbled, which really would be quite special.
Trench A (now named Alfie) is a little behind, and still having it's plan drawn at the moment, but this should be finished by the end of today, as long as the promised thinderstorms hold off. Although it has only been deturfed and cleaned so far, it has still turned up some nice finds, including Arran Pitchstone, worked flint and a very nice hammer stone. I for one am looking forward to getting into the courtyard area and seeing what is there.

Geophysics has been patchy, the ground still being too wet to get good results! (One of the difficulties of a peaty, upland site) but we will be having another go with magnetic susceptibility at some point. Meanwhile the geophysics team had a day out on Saturday and got some great results from a round house (suspected to be Iron Age) away from Blasthill, near the rocky outcrop known as 'The Bastard' on OS maps!

We also opened a small trench on what looks very much like a small quarry, which probably supplied stone for the chambered tomb, and plan to do some experimental archaeology and attempt to quarry our own monolith using nothing but wood, stone and other suitably Neolithic materials. Should be fun!

Richard Tipping has been to visit us too, and taken some cores from the peat bog for environmental analysis, which he is going to rush through. He got some really good cores on this visit, and the prospect of good results seems high.

Finally for this entry, we have been pretty busy in the community too. We have been out to Southend and Dalintober Schools, and Drumlemble School brought about 30 pupils and staff up to visit the site, which was enjoyed by all. We have also been invited to a reception hosted by the Friends of the Museum to meet some of the local dignitaries.

That seems like a lot of news since the last posting, and it is, which is very satisfying. Sometimes a little review like this is needed to help us realise how much we have done. Let's just hope the next one is even better!

Things are going well as we aproach the end of the first week. Both trenches are now open, and we have finds of flint, quartz and Aran pitchstone. Part of the monument's kerb in trench B looks really good (photos to follow in a day or two) and debate is raging about what we have!

Geophysics has also been busy, but the results of that are still waiting to be downloaded, so watch this space.

We have had a few visitors to the site too, which is very pleasing to see. Tomorrow (Friday) is a big day for the PR exercise, as we have two school visits and a public open day at the site until 7 p.m. It'll be interesting to see who turns up.

Day three has dawned on us bright and sunny, which comes as something of a relief and a chance to dry wet boots as we work! Up until now we have been preparing the site. We have been surveying, laying out grids, cutting grass (by hand, with a range of instruments ranging from blunt shears to kitchen scissors- the joys of upland archaeology!) and deturfing. Next we will begin to remove the topsoil and reveal the structure of the tomb. Already we have found a nice flint scraper, and we are just hoping will we find more!
We are also delighted to be able to report we will be in this week's Campbeltown Courier.

We also have a few public events organised. There are open days this Friday (26th, until 7 p.m. so people have a chance to come and see us after work) and also on Sunday 12th July (10-4 p.m.) and we will be presenting a public lecture to announce our findings at the Argyll Arms, Campbeltown on Wednesday 15th July, starting at 8 p.m. In addition to this we have a few school visits organised, and hope to have some more events if we can find suitable venues. They will be announced both here and on the bulletin board in Campbeltown library as and when they become reality.

That's all for now, but this really is where the interesting digging starts, so fingers crossed that in the next couple of days we'll have loads of interesting finds to talk about!