Search

Euan W. MacKie, Professor Challenger and his Lost Neolithic World: The Compelling Story of Alexander Thom and British Archaeoastronomy Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020. Paperback 158 pp., 81 figures ISBN 9781784918330. £30.00.

An introduction to the special supplement edition of the Scottish Archaeological Journal dedicated to papers about Scottish antiquarian and archaeologist Ludovic Mclellan Mann. This brief introduction explains the context for this publication - a conference in 2019 - and outlines the Mann's legacy.

The painting of the Cochno Stone rock-art panel, West Dunbartonshire, in 1937 by Ludovic McLellan Mann is one of the most eccentric acts in the history of archaeology in Scotland. Despite publishing widely and being a compulsive user of newspapers to publicise and report on his activities, Mann left very few direct clues to explain what the grid and symbols he painted onto the Cochno Stone meant. This paper describes the different elements of Mann's paintjob based on historic photography and observations made during the brief uncovering of the Cochno Stone in 2016. The logic underpinning the multiple elements of this painted scheme, including two different grids, is explored with reference to other works published by Mann and his broader body of research. It is argued that Mann saw the arrangement of rock-art symbols carved into the Cochno Stone as a microcosm of a Neolithic cosmological scheme and associated with the documentation of and prediction of eclipses. The paper concludes with reflection on the legacy of this act.

This article examines the interpretation and public presentation of a particular view of the supposedly ‘national’ role of monuments in a geographically restricted part of southern England – what we have termed the British late Neolithic mythos: that monuments in the Stonehenge area had a ‘national’, ‘unifying’ role for ‘Britain’ at a time when ‘Britain’ had a ‘unified culture’ and was isolated from continental Europe, and that as part of that process, animals for feasting were transported from as far as ‘Scotland’. We explore the trajectory of interpretative inflation, ‘possible’ > ‘probable’ > ‘certain’ > ‘sensational’ through academic and popular accounts, media releases, social media, newspaper articles, TV programmes, Research Excellence Framework impact reports, and the publications of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. We critically examine the evidence claimed to underpin this far-reaching re-interpretation of British prehistory. We examine the extent to which a priori assumptions can shape the interpretation of complex datasets and how unacknowledged nationalist and neo-colonialist thinking underpin its interpretation. We consider the way in which researchers have linked their work with contemporary politics – Brexit, a ‘united Britain’ isolated from Europe, perhaps to demonstrate ‘relevance, ‘impact’ and ‘reach’ to funding bodies. We conclude with some suggestions on ways forward including further research, and mitigating strategies.

Although the Neolithic period is defined by farming, physical evidence for processes associated with farming are rare, with agricultural practices usually indicated by environmental and biomolecular proxies for domesticates such as pollen evidence, ceramic residues and lipids, animal bones, plant remains and stable isotope studies. This paper will, we hope, invigorate discussion on the recognition, interpretation and significance of physical traces of farming in Scotland. The starting point will be the summary of two excavations, Wellhill and Cranberry, both Perth and Kinross, in 2014 and 2016 respectively, part of the Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot (SERF) project. These cropmark sites revealed evidence for possible Neolithic farming in the form of possible ard marks and field ditches. There follows a synthesis of physical evidence for Neolithic farming in Scotland, drawing together evidence for ard marks, field boundaries, cultivation ridges, cultivated middens, and soils. Recommendations are made for recognising and interpreting such features on excavations, and the potential benefits of giving a higher profile to the act of farming in our narratives about Neolithic lifeways in Scotland and beyond are briefly explored.

The current border between Scotland and England, UK, was a source of contention during Scotland's 2014 independence referendum; debate at times even involved the use and abuse of history and prehistory. Some strands of argument drew on the historical trope of Hadrian’s Wall being confused with the modern border, and this chapter reviews some of the more public examples of the debate in the right-leaning and nationalist press in Scotland. The main focus of the chapter however is the Auld Acquaintance cairn, located in Gretna just to the north of the border. This monument, based on Bronze Age Clava cairns, was constructed in summer 2014 to celebrate the union between Scotland and England. The construction process, and post-independence referendum life of this prehistoric-style monument is documented through analysis of media and social media accounts of the cairn, and site visits. These examples are used to caution against the egregious exploitation of prehistory in contemporary politics, having no relevance to the form and location of modern political borders.

Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and other enclosures. The cemetery was established between 3080 and 2900 cal bc, probably in the 30th century cal bc, which is contemporary with the cremation cemetery at Stonehenge. Nine discrete deposits of cremated bone, representing the remains of at least 18 people, were identified. In most instances they were placed within cut features and, in one case, a series of cremation deposits was associated with a broken standing stone. This paper includes the first detailed assessment of the cremated remains at Forteviot and the features associated with the cemetery, and explores how the establishment of this cemetery may have been both a catalyst and inspiration for the elaborate monument building and prolonged acts of remembrance that occurred at this location over a period of almost 1000 years. The paper also outlines the parallels for Forteviot across Britain and, for the first time, draws together the dating evidence (including Bayesian modelling) for this major category of evidence for considering the nature of late 4th/early 3rd millennium cal bc society. The results and discussion have wide implications and resonances for contemplating the establishment and evolution of monument complexes in prehistoric Britain and beyond.

Scotland, like many other countries, is undergoing a transition to renewable\ud energy. This paper discusses the social context within which this transition\ud is taking place and which is conditioning the possibilities for energy\ud development and its effects on people. In particular, the paper explores\ud historically-rooted conflicts relating to land rights and wild land protection,\ud considering these issues and their relationship to energy development in\ud terms of landscape justice (i.e. the principle of fairness in the ways people\ud relate to the landscape and to each other through the landscape). Pursuing\ud a more just settlement between people and landscape is often a matter of\ud understanding problematic pasts and working to overcome their harmful\ud legacies. It is argued that there is an important role for heritage practice in\ud helping to deliver energy development which takes the historical, social and\ud cultural context more fully into account and thereby helps to bring about a\ud more just settlement between people and the landscape.

The visceral nature of fire was exploited in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Britain by the burning down of timber buildings and monuments, as well as the cremation of the dead. These big fires would have created memories, perhaps even ‘flashbulb memories’, and this powerful mnemonic aspect of fire was likely of significance to the social and religious lives of individuals, families and communities. This article introduces the Build N Burn concept, where fires are recreated and deployed alongside public talks, performances, experimental archaeology activities and demonstrations by craft specialists to create memorable and informative public events. Three public engagements to date, two on the island of Arran and one in Caithness, both Scotland, are described here. In each case, we constructed replica timber structures inspired by local prehistoric sites, and then burned these down in a free-to-attend public event at dusk, evoking the culmination of a prehistoric festival. Build N Burn has, at its core, the principle of delivering memorable experiences for the public inspired by prehistory, underpinned by research and experiment, using events which draw on cross-sectoral collaboration and working with local communities. This article offers a critical reflection on work to date, and discusses future potential for such activities, utilizing the mnemonic power and transformational potential of fire for public engagement and experimental archaeology.

Perception and experience have become important elements of the study of past landscapes, monuments, and material culture within archaeology since the early 1990s. The main theoretical driver behind this has been the philosophical concept of phenomenology, which gives primacy to engaged, embodied, and sensory encounters with archaeological materials, sites, and landscapes. Such approaches are much contested and various methodological developments have been necessary in terms of how one records experiences of places, and things, and subsequently uses these experiences to generate valid archaeological interpretations.

Archaeologists have more opportunities than ever to disseminate their research widely—and the public more opportunities to engage and respond. This has led to the increasing mobilisation of archaeological data and interpretations within the discourses of nationalism and identity politics. This debate piece introduces the Brexit hypothesis, the proposition that any archaeological discovery in Europe can—and probably will—be exploited to argue in support of, or against, Brexit. Examples demonstrate how archaeological and ancient DNA studies are appropriated for political ends, and a series of recommendations and strategies for combatting such exploitation are proposed by the author.

The Cochno Stone is one of the most extensive and highly decorated prehistoric rock-art outcrops in Britain. It is located on the northern urban fringe of West Dunbartonshire beside Faifley, Clydebank, in a park in the foothills of the Kilpatrick Hills. First re-discovered by antiquarians toward the end of the nineteenth century, this outcrop subsequently became the focus of the attentions of Ludovic McLellan Mann in the 1930s, who decorated the stone with an elaborate painted colour-scheme. Expanding urbanisation, visitor numbers and graffiti prompted the authorities to bury the stone beneath soil for its own protection in 1965. During two seasons of fieldwork in 2015 and 2016, the Cochno Stone was exposed for short periods of time to allow for an assessment to be made of the condition of the stone surface, and digital and photogrammetric recording to take place. Provisional results of the fieldwork are reported on here, but the main focus of this paper is to present as fully as possible for the first time the biography of the Cochno Stone from antiquarian discovery to the present day. The paper concludes with thoughts about the future of this monument.

This paper offers the first comprehensive overview of Scotland’s early Neolithic timber cursus monuments. This small group of sites has, in recent years, been viewed as a significant element of the early Neolithic repertoire in northern Britain, and forerunner to the later earthwork cursus monuments found across the British Isles; but as yet their treatment has been at a largely superficial level. The article draws together the evidence from excavations, cropmarks and the authors’ own fieldwork. As well as describing the monuments, the study also offers a new interpretation of the construction, role and destruction of these monuments within the context of the woodland world of lowland Scotland in the first half of the fourth millennium BC.

A response to the three respondents to my Brexit Hypothesis article in the same volume of Antiquity (vol 92 issue 366).

This excellent book offers a fresh and much needed reinterpretation of a number of the most famous sites of British prehistory. The book contains the results of many little pieces of fieldwork, as ...

The Scottish Theoretical Archaeology Group (STAG) conference organisers expressed some doubts about how far theory has changed, and impacted, archaeological establishment and academia in Scotland. In this paper, I will argue that Scotland is certainly not isolated in a theoretical sense, although in the past, Scottish archaeology could be accused of being theoretically conservative, or at least dependent on ideas and models developed elsewhere. A case-study looking at Neolithic studies will be used to illustrate that despite some recent critical historiographies of the study of the period in Scotland, archaeologists in Scotland and those working with Scottish material have been theoretically innovative and in step with wider paradigm changes. The study of the Neolithic in Scotland, it could be argued, has been shaped by theory more than the study of any other period; we are not isolated, but rather part of wider networks of discourse.

Aerial photography and excavations have brought to notice a major prehistoric ceremonial complex in central Scotland comparable to Stonehenge, although largely built in earth and timber. Beginning, like Stonehenge, as a cremation cemetery, it launched its monumentality by means of an immense circle of tree trunks, and developed it with smaller circles of posts and an earth bank (henge). A change of political mood in the Early Bronze Age is marked by one of Scotland's best preserved dagger-burials in a stone cist with an engraved lid. The perishable (or reusable) materials meant that this great centre lay for millennia under ploughed fields, until it was adopted, by design or by chance, as a centre of the Pictish kings.

Palisaded enclosures were huge enclosed spaces with timber boundaries found across Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia in the Neolithic. Five such sites have been identified in Scotland dating to the later Neolithic, four of which have been excavated to varying degrees. These sites form the main focus of this paper, which draws in particular on interim results from the authors' excavations at Forteviot, Perth and Kinross, during 2007–2009. The palisaded enclosures of Scotland are part of a wider British and Irish tradition and there are a number of European parallels, the closest of which lie in southern Scandinavia. The palisaded enclosures in Scotland are tightly clustered geographically and chronologically, constructed in the centuries after 2800 cal BC. This paper explores the function, role, and meaning of palisaded enclosures in Scotland and more generally, drawing not just on the architecture of the monuments, but also the individual posts that were used to create the enclosures. The role of these monuments in reconstituting nature is also considered.

In 1985 a review of Scottish Neolithic studies from an outside perspective written by Ian Kinnes was published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Kinnes's paper offered a discussion of the state of knowledge of Scotland's Neolithic at that time, reviewing forty years of excavation results. He was also critical of, as he saw it, the parochial and derivative nature of Neolithic studies in Scotland. In this paper, written 20 years after Kinnes’s significant contribution, the response to this charge will be discussed. A review of major developments in Neolithic studies since 1985 has also been undertaken, the results of which are included here. The impact of developer-funded archaeology and aerial photography in particular has generated substantial new data not available to Kinnes; these data have been generated within a new theoretical climate in Neolithic studies, and this too will be addressed. Reviews of evidence for settlement and monuments are presented as case studies to exemplify progress made since 1985.

This paper addresses a small group of Neolithic monuments recorded as cropmarks in eastern lowland Scotland that have been termed timber halls, the best known example being the large rectangular building, Balbridie. Three such sites have now been excavated, and all have been shown to date to the early centuries of the Neolithic and to have been largely similar structures; further possible examples in the cropmark record will be assessed, through looking at the use of the term ‘timber hall’ in Scottish archaeology over the past 40 years. The paper will also address a number of sites, mostly known as cropmarks, which have similar dimensions and architectural traits to these timber halls. Excavations, however, have shown them to have a very different form (for instance, probably unroofed), and to date to the latter half of the 4th millennium calBC,several centuries later than the first timber halls. Drawing on excavation results, cropmarks, and evidence from outwith Scotland, this paper will discuss the changing form and function of the Neolithic ‘timber hall’ tradition in Scotland, arguing that roofed ‘big houses’ were later replaced by ceremonial and mortuary ‘cult houses’, drawing on social memory and tradition.

This paper examines the division that has grown up in contemporary archaeology between practical and theoretical branches of the discipline. It argues that the two sides of this schism are archaeological versions of objectivism and subjectivism, and that they really represent a single dualism. To break out of this, what is needed is an approach to thinking and doing archaeology that recognizes the embodied nature of archaeological engagements with material culture, together with an understanding of the emergent, relational character of archaeological data. In the light of this discussion, we attempt to redefine the building blocks of archaeology (material culture and the past), and to show with a case study how such an archaeology might generate new insights in practice.

The excavation of a long timber-built structure of the early Neolithic near Callander (formerly Perthshire, now Stirling Council area) is described. The remains appear to be those of a structure measuring a maximum of c 24m by 8.5m with roughly straight sides and curved terminals, both of which have entrance gaps. About 1m in from both terminals is an arc of five posts; the interior is divided into between five and seven sections by these arcs and by a further three to five transverse screens or lines of posts. The pattern of division closely resembles that observed at the Neolithic site at Balbridie, Aberdeenshire, and it is argued that Claish, like Balbridie, was a roofed building. At both sites a central area unencumbered by many posts was created, and a relatively greater density of posts in the southern part of the structure perhaps indicates the presence of an upper floor. The relatively clear area contained two pits in which fires had been set, in one case on a layer of pot sherds. Similarities to other, but probably un-roofed, timber structures of the Neolithic of Perthshire and Fife are noted and it is suggested that there was an architectural ‘vocabulary’ in use in the early Neolithic in east-central Scotland.

For two weeks in September 2007, the valley of Kilmartin became a pilgrimage site again. Half Life was an ambitious landscape event played out across the canvas of the familiar Kilmartin Glen, an event that intermingled ideas about the prehistoric past with our engagements with it in the contemporary world - a challenging combination. Half Life is the latest in a series of ambitious large-scale public artworks by the environmental arts organisation, NVA. This acronym stands for nacionale vitae activae (‘the right to influence public affairs’). Over the past 15 years, the group have been responsible for a number of high-profile landscape art events including ‘The Storr: Unfolding Landscape on Skye’, and ‘The Path’ in Glen Lyon. Half Life seems an even more ambitious project than usual, involving the collaboration of artists in a number of fields, from landscape art to experimental music, as well as the involvement of the National Theatre of Scotland. Half Life was described in pre-publicity as a ‘journey into the Neolithic’ to ‘reveal the dark but inspiring mindset of Scotland's Neolithic inhabitants’. In reality this equated to a range of events in the Kilmartin and Crinan area, including walks and site visits, landscape art installations and a dramatic production with actors and musicians each evening.

Traditionally, the study of houses and domestic life has been given less prominence in the study of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland than in other parts of Europe. Since the 1990s, however, increasing evidence for houses and settlements has been recognized. This chapter outlines the incredible variety of house forms and settlement types from the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland, from the stone houses and villages of Orkney, to timber buildings in Ireland and Scotland, and evidence for settlement in England will also be reviewed. This evidence is placed within its social and economic context.