It may not look like much, but that is one of the most important
archeological sites in Western Europe. When I say it's prehistoric,
I mean that literally. The ruins that are buried here
at Ness of Brodgar are from around 5000 years ago,
when writing hadn't really been invented. And this... ...this is an old worn out tire. And today, a team of volunteers
are putting 500 of these on top of that. - The Ness of Brodgar is a huge Neolithic
complex discovered in 2002 when we did geophysics across this area. Despite the size of the trenches, this only covers approximately
10% of the site. It's massive. It is a place of gathering,
5000 years ago. We can envisage hundreds
of people coming here. Neolithic society
wasn't a static society and through the thousand
years that the Ness was in use, we see those changes
reflected in the architecture. What the Ness of Brodgar
has unlocked for archeologists is a huge range of information. We have many new discoveries, new types
of discoveries at the Ness of Brodgar. The preservation is quite remarkable. Under nine inches of topsoil
we have Neolithic walls standing. And this is because this field has
never, ever been deeply plowed. - The reason for the tires, and the plastic
underneath, is a bit more obvious when you know where we are: the Orkney Islands,
off the northern tip of Scotland. The weather here can be brutal.
Sure, it's nice today. The temperature's usually mild. We're at the end of the Gulf Stream here,
so it rarely gets too hot or too cold. But we're next to the ocean. The wind is harsh and fast
and it blows in salt spray. The trouble with exposing the past
is that, well, you're exposing the past. - As soon as it's exposed to the air, water can start getting into the very fine
laminations in the building stone. And literally, you'd see these walls start
to crumble at the end of each season. We cover the site with layers of plastic, then to hold all those covers in place,
all these hundreds of tires. I used to live at the top of the hill
just behind us, where we recorded once a gust of over 120mph. And after some of the big storms
we have in the winter, despite our best efforts, sometimes you come back to site
and the corner of the polythene and some of the tires will have
actually been moved by the wind. - The old tires are a practical solution. They're free, they're heavy
but they can be moved fairly easily. And they're just soft enough
not to cause damage when they're on top
of the plastic sheeting. They look ugly. They're going to disappoint
any visitors for the next few months, but it means the site is
still going to be there, intact, When spring comes
and archeology can start again. - We have to protect it. We have to do this
to the best of our abilities, because these walls have stood
for over 5,000 years. And it's a top priority for us
to hopefully keep them there and keep them in prime condition
for the next 5,000 years. - To be honest, they didn't
actually need the tire there. They just gave me one so
I could be out of the way of the volunteers who are
doing the actual hard work.
I went there 2 weeks ago. The time before that the site was more visible. It’s so interesting I wish there was a way of preserving it that allowed people to see it.
Is it already time to cover it up until spring? I’d have thought they’d have a month at least before the bad winds start coming in? Spring can be quite unpredictable.
First time I’ve heard of NoB. I’ll definitely need to visit when it’s uncovered.