Category: Archaeology general

Archaeology as Muse

I love a good book, and I love writing, but I could not write fiction! Thanks to Pete Stokes for this photo.

Archaeology is important to me. I just love it when it permeates everyday culture. It is a justification in my mind of its significance as an artefact, itself contributing to the way we live now. Continue reading Archaeology as Muse

Ancestral Piles

The remains at Skara Brae in Orkney evidence generations of Neolithic occupants. Was this family representation significant to Neolithic society? One author thinks so in his new book.

We have a very short-term relationship with material culture these days. Nothing lasts for long and we are ever keen to seek a new version, the most up to date model. It is true with regard to both our largest and our smallest possessions. The Continue reading Ancestral Piles

Destroy the past – at your peril

The Emin Minaret, Turfan, China. Heritage sites do not have to relate to our own society in order to be meaningful.

There has been a bit of discussion about the morality of destroying heritage sites. Whether as an act of repercussion in war, or the lead up to war, or as a way of simplifying the present, it has shocked me that it might be something for consideration. Continue reading Destroy the past – at your peril

Excavating the Mesolithic

Excavation in progress on the Mesolithic site at Kinloch, Rum, in the 1980s. The site was preserved under a thin skim of ploughsoil, as it is cleaned back it is possible to see the darker colours of the fills in Mesolihtic pits and hollows beginning to show up.

Mesolithic sites rarely make glamorous excavations. All too often they seem to comprise a corner of a muddy field where there is little to be seen except for a strange pattern of discolourations in the subsoil, and possibly some accumulations of broken stone. I spent much of my early career crouching down Continue reading Excavating the Mesolithic

RNAS Twatt

The Control Tower sits amidst the remains of the airfield at RNAS Twatt

My usual archaeological zone is quite a long time ago. I’m happiest immersing myself in the world as it was in the millennia immediately after the last ice age. But, given my overwhelming curiosity about how life was lived in the past, I’m also interested in other periods. One of the fascinating things about archaeology Continue reading RNAS Twatt

Archaeology: the essential ingredient of Rewilding

Rewilding should not just be about remote places, it has to be about the urban landscape too.

I’m often asked about the lessons that archaeology can offer the populations of today. In particular, people are interested to know about research on past sea-level and climate change. In general, I am sceptical that archaeology has anything much to offer. Population levels today are so much higher than they Continue reading Archaeology: the essential ingredient of Rewilding

At One with the World

Scapa Beach
Awareness of the world around us is more important than we might think.

We are slowly moving out of Summer and into Autumn. This time of year is often one of warmer, more settled weather up here in the north, and this year it is very welcome. In general, it has been a bad summer. Temperatures have been low and there has been a lot of rain. Continue reading At One with the World

The Tourist Trap

Traffic management can be an issue for the Orcadian tourist attractions on summer days, as here in the car park at Skara Brae.

I’m troubled by tourists. I like them, and I like to be a tourist myself, but, somehow, tourism has become a problem.

There are lots of reasons to appreciate tourism. It has always had a close relationship to archaeology and that continues today. Archaeology has a magnetic draw for tourists: sites are often in picturesque locations; ruins can be romantic; some hold the allure of ancestral homelands; others provide interest for the intellectual; many are exotic. There is something comforting about reminding ourselves just how deep rooted our past can be. Continue reading The Tourist Trap

Living in Mesolithic Scotland

The lives of our Mesolithic ancestors were very different to ours. What can they teach us?

I’ve been working on a text about life in Mesolithic Scotland for a teaching resource. It has got me thinking about one of my favourite subjects: the ways in which our life differs so much from that of our Mesolithic ancestors and yet we still value skills that would have been very familiar to those who made their home here eight thousand years ago. Continue reading Living in Mesolithic Scotland